Category: Features - Page 82 - International Solidarity Movement

A night of protective presence needed

3rd April 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | al-Khalil, occupied Palestine

The two boys met us at the store, shouting the name of our Palestinian contact and waving us along. The cobbled stones in the alley made a nice contrast to the darkness of the night. My feet landed softly on the mud where we started our climb. Glimpses of trash were seen from the flickering flash lights, as if we were threading our way across the city dump. We were going to the house of Imad Abu Shamsiyyeh, the man who had managed to catch last week’s execution on film. His name was out in the media and he and his family had received death threats. The local illegal settlers had also put up posters with his name and face on them, saying they wanted him skinned alive. The house had already been firebombed. We were going there as an international presence to act as a deterrent to what seemed a likely further attack.

Emad in his family home — Imad in his family home

This night his backyard looked like your average neighbourhood barbecue, except that nobody was eating. Imad was sitting by the brazier alongside ten other men from the surrounding houses. His children were buzzing about, and his wife Faisa made sure everyone got their coffee and tea. When the soldiers showed up she made sure everything got caught on film.

There were three of them, all dressed in green, with black automatic rifles and some form of knee pads, which went well with the beret of their leader. They reminded me of turtles with their inability to look back over their shoulders. The execution had been condemned by president Netanyahu at first but later on, as the Israeli public opinion cleared in favour of the soldier, the shooting was surrounded with excuses. The situation for the messenger had however deteriorated.

As the soldiers walked in to the backyard a handful of camera LCDs lit up the night, like torches keeping the wolves at bay. Faisa brought her camera close to the officer’s face, where he hopefully saw a reflection of himself, a harasser of ordinary people.

The soldiers stood around for a while as they checked our passports and IDs. The situation was a bit tense but as everyone had the right to be there, they turned on their heels and left. They were the second delegation from the Israeli army that night. A lone soldier had come at first, to see if there was any protection present, and Issa guessed, to go back and tell the settlers. Luckily, there were a lot of people showing Imad and Faisa their support.

As the hours passed people started to leave for their homes. Our delegation from the ISM spent the rest of the night at Imad’s place. There was an Indian soap opera on TV, dubbed to Arabic, and the children surfed the internet. It could have been a quiet night in a home anywhere in the world, if it hadn’t been for the occupation, or the death threats.

Olive tree planting connects Palestinians in the Jordan Valley

2nd April 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah Team | Jordan Valley, Occupied Palestine

On Saturday 2nd April, Palestinians and international activists alike worked together in solidarity to plant olive trees in the town of al-Bikaa in the Jordan Valley, the town falls under area C of the occupied territories. The act of planting the trees today was symbolic and had several meanings behind the days actions.

In November, 2015, the occupying Israeli forces confiscated a field of land from the native Palestinians and used it to plant grape vines, fruits that often end up on the tables of naive western countries who’s citizens have very little idea of the vegetation’s origin and the ongoing struggle for Palestinians that is created from these malicious land confiscations.

A man in the new field with the Israeli field behind him

The primary agenda behind the tree planting today was to strategically plant the olive trees in a freshly ploughed and fertilised field to the right of where the Israeli government has planted their grape vines. There is hope amongst the Palestinians that if the fields are being utilised then the occupying forces will not confiscate the land.

It was the first activity organised by the popular union to protect the Jordan Valley. It was a symbolic and momentous day as previously, each village throughout the regions of Nablus, Tubas and Jericho have each had their own governing bodies. There have been more than twenty five unions in the past and this has brought them all together under one new body.

Young children playing whilst helping in the planting of the olive trees

The Palestinians of the Jordan Valley face an ongoing struggle against the occupying forces from malicious land confiscations, the constant threat of home demolitions, the struggle to attain building permits along with limited water and electrical supplies to Palestinian local farmers (illegal Israeli settlers have unlimited water and electricity at their disposal). Despite all of this the Palestinian people remain defiant, resilient and will stand together in solidarity in hope for a brightful future of their rightful lands.

Bil’in Land Day demonstration met with violence, long-range tear gas

2nd April 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Bi’lin, occupied Palestine

On 1st April 2016, the village of Bi’lin marked the 40th anniversary of Palestine’s Land Day during their weekly nonviolent Friday demonstration. Israeli forces attacked the peaceful demonstrators with a wide range of weaponry.

The protesters marched towards the illegal apartheid wall separating the village from over a thousand dunams of its agricultural land, where now one of the many illegal Israeli settlements, Modi’in Illit, is located. In their weekly nonviolent demonstrations, the villagers, together with international activists, protest against the illegal Israeli land theft and occupation.

373615C — April 1 demonstration in Bil’in

Israeli forces attacked the peaceful protestors with rubber-coated steel bullets, different tear gas canisters and stun grenades. Many trees in the village’s fields caught fire due to the falling tear gas. Recently, Israeli forces have returned to the use of dangerous, hard-tipped, potentially deadly long-range tear gas canisters against demonstrators throughout the occupied West Bank. It was one of this type of tear gas canisters that in April 2009 caused the death of Bassam Abu Rahme in Bi’lin, when Israeli forces shot him directly in the chest from close range.

934133_1682392575364446_138838265318482530_n — New weapons being used by occupation forces against nonviolent demonstrators in the West Bank

Children and residents in houses inside the village suffered the effects of excessive tear gas inhalation due the use of these long-range tear gas canisters, which automatically target innocent civilians not even participating in the protest.

Peaceful tree planting met with force in Nabi Saleh

1st April 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Nabi Salih, West Bank, Occupied Palestine

On Friday 1st April, Palestinians from the town of Nabi Salih, along with international and Israeli activists, marched together in solidarity to protest the illegal Israeli settlement of Hamalish that has been built on and expanded over time on Palestinian land.

The march started shortly after the noon prayer, around 1:30pm, activists gathered near the entry point of the town. From here they set off and made their way peacefully down the hillside to the main road, at which point they were met by volleys of tear gas by the awaiting Israeli forces.

A young girl being interviewed prior to the demonstration

With sporadic wind changes the initial tear gas spread quickly and caused the demonstrators to be hit hard, feeling strong effects from the gas. Once the first rounds of gas had cleared the demonstrators re-grouped and made their way to the natural spring that was once part of Palestinian land but has been overtaken by settlers and deemed a closed military zone since, allowing only the army and the illegal settlers to use it whilst barring Palestinians from the area.

“I’ve never felt tear gas so badly before, the winds just made it unbearable. I felt as if I was going to pass out…” – Activist on the scene

Once the spring was reached, the activists, led by females from the town of Nabi Salih began to plant small olive trees on land that is rightfully theirs in a peaceful form of resistance to the occupation. This was cut short by the boarder police soldiers who physically grabbed and pushed the women away, throwing tear gas and stun grenades at them also.

More occupation soldiers arrived within minutes, during this time there were copious amounts of tear gas thrown and over twenty stun grenades dropped at the feet and thrown directly at the demonstrators. The soldiers pushed demonstrators back over the road from the direction in which they came, using more force and even using pepper spray directly in the faces of activists.

A soldier about to begin pepper spraying demonstrators

Once the soldiers had pushed the demonstrators halfway up the hillside the aggression eased off temporarily. From here the demonstrators remained and began to sing songs peacefully while Israeli demonstrators spoke in Hebrew with the soldiers, questioning their morality in defending the illegally occupied lands.

Demonstrators standing defiant in the face of the occupying forces

The demonstrators started to make their way back to the town of Nabi Salih about an hour after it had begun, this did not stop the soldiers from continuing their excessive use of force and harassment as they fired volley after volley of tear gas at the demonstrators who were leaving peacefully.

The soldiers also began firing the extremely dangerous, and sometimes lethal, long range tear gas canisters. The canisters break into three parts during flight and are virtually undetectable. During flight, for the first three to four hundred meters they leave no gas trail making it hard for anyone to detect where they are coming from. The canisters flew past the heads of demonstrators who were leaving, this being extremely dangerous as they were quite often not looking in the direction from which the tear gas canisters were coming and weren’t expecting any more aggression from the Israeli forces.

Tear gas rains down on Nabi Salih while behind sits the illegal Hamalish settlement — Tear gas rains down on Nabi Salih while behind sits the illegal Halamish settlement

“I heard a whistle and then a smash, the canister exploded into fragments on a rock right next to me” – Activist on the scene

Thankfully no people where injured during the demonstration but with continued and excessive use of the long range tear gas canisters, it may only be a matter of time before someone is seriously injured or killed unless the occupying forces refrain from using such a weapon.

Targeting of civilians with excessive force in Ni’lin

1st April 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Ni’lin, occupied Palestine

On 1st April, the weekly non-violent protest in Ni’lin village commemorated the Palestinian Land Day – and was, as every week, attacked by Israeli forces with endless rounds of tear gas, including long-range tear gas canisters that mainly targeted civilians.

The demonstrators, as every week, set off to march towards the illegal apartheid wall that separates them from the majority of the villages land, after noon-prayer. Behind the apartheid-wall, on land that belongs to the village of Ni’lin, where one of the many illegal Israeli settlements is located. In protest against this land-theft through the apartheid wall and the Israeli forces weekly excessive force and targeting of innocent civilians, the villagers protest every Friday.

Israeli forces, that were ready and waiting for demonstrators before the prayer had finished, were located very close towards the villages centre, thus preventing them from even approaching anywhere near the illegal apartheid wall. In a clear example of excessive force, Israeli forces inundated not only the protestors, but the whole village with endless rounds of tear gas. Five persons required medical care due to excessive tear gas inhalation. Both a bakery and the mosque were targeted with tear gas this week.

This use of excessive force in Ni’lin is not directed against the protestors, but targets innocent and completely uninvolved civilians. In the recent weeks, Israeli forces’ use of excessive force when targeting civilians in Ni’lin became obvious with private homes and a public park with playground repeatedly the main target of Israeli forces attack on the villagers of Ni’lin.

Additionally, Israeli forces have re-introduced the use of the dangerous and potentially deadly long-range tear gas canisters that can cover an area of more than 500 meters and due to the extremely hard black-tip not only break through windows and walls, but also severely injure and kill any civilian hit.