Category: Photo Story - Page 31 - International Solidarity Movement

Photo Essay: Ongoing resistance in Bil’in

2nd August 2013 | Friends of Freedom and Justice | Bil’in, Occupied Palestine

Dozens of Palestinian, international and Israeli activists participated at today’s demonstration against the apartheid wall and land annexation organised by the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Bil’in. The demonstration was dedicated to the Palestinian Bedouins in Al Nakab and to the international day of Jerusalem.

The march began after Friday midday prayers from the center of the village towards the apartheid wall.

The participants raised Palestinian flags and chanted slogans calling for the end of the occupation, the demolition of the apartheid wall and freedom for all Palestinian political prisoners.

Upon arrival to the area of the wall, Israeli soldiers, located behind the wall, fired rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas canisters and sound grenades at the demonstrators.

Many suffered from tear gas inhalation and were treated on the spot.

Photo essay: Israeli activist injured with a rubber-coated steel bullet at Nabi Saleh demonstration

19th July 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah Team | Nabi Saleh, Occupied Palestine

Today, around fifty Palestinians together with Israeli and international activists marched from the centre of Nabi Saleh down the main road towards the stolen spring.

Protesters made barricades of burning tyres to prevent Israeli forces from raiding the village.

Soon after that, several Israeli border police officers appeared behind a house on the right side of the main road and started shooting rubber coated steel bullets at protesters.

More Israeli border police then arrived at the bottom of the main road, running towards protesters and shooting more rubber coated steel bullets.

An Israeli woman activist was shot in her upper thigh with a rubber coated steel bullet from close range and had to be taken to hospital in Tel Aviv. She underwent a very minor surgery to get the bullet removed and will remain in hospital until Sunday.

Israeli forces continued shooting rubber coated steel bullets and tear gas canisters from various locations inside the village.

According to a resident of Nabi Saleh, yesterday night at around 3am, an Israeli bulldozer was working in the spring. Settlers from Halamish also went to the spring to talk to the soldiers. Palestinian youths went to the hilltop in front of this area to see what was happening and verbal confrontations between settlers and them erupted. Israeli forces, defending the settlers as usual, shot several tear gas canisters at Palestinians.

Previously this week, on Tuesday, clashes between residents of Nabi Saleh and Israeli forces erupted in the same spot where Rushdi Tamimi was shot last November. Israeli forces shot rubber coated steel bullets and injured Mohammed Tamimi (10) in the leg. Mahmoud Tamimi (22) was then shot with live ammunition also in the leg. Read the full report here.

“Knocking on the gates of Jerusalem”: demonstration against injustice of Israeli occupation

29th June 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil team | Bethlehem, Occupied Palestine

Today, Saturday 29th June, a group of Palestinian activists demanded access to the occupied city of Jerusalem through the gate in the Apartheid Wall in Bethlehem. Their nonviolent demonstration also aimed to highlight Palestinian opposition to the US Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit, but was met with violence from the Israeli occupation military. The Apartheid Wall gate was closed in the face of the protesters, shutting them out of their illegally occupied land.

Activists head for Jerusalem, aiming to walk through the Apartheid Wall checkpoint (Photo by: ISM)

At around 11am Palestinian activists, accompanied by international demonstrators, walked towards the checkpoint in the Apartheid Wall towards Jerusalem. Access is granted by the Israeli occupation authorities for very few Palestinians –people between the ages of 18-45 are routinely denied permits. The Palestinian demonstrators demanded right of entry to their capital city, Jerusalem. Israeli occupation military immediately reacted violently at the checkpoint, pushing and shoving non-violent protesters. One demonstrator was pushed aggressively to the ground by a heavily armed Israeli soldier.

Around twenty soldiers were involved in suppressing the peaceful demonstration, and after around ten minutes of harassment of the Palestinian protesters, they closed the Apartheid Wall gate. This is the second attempt in two weeks of Palestinians to cross into occupied Jerusalem. They vow to continue to demand an end to the restriction of movement imposed on the Palestinian people by the Israeli occupation.

Israeli soldier violently pushes back peaceful demonstrators (Photo by: ISM)

Protesters held signs saying “Kerry go home” and slogans about apartheid. US Secretary of State John Kerry was permitted to enter occupied Jerusalem two days ago on Thursday 27th June, where he met Israeli occupation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. His meeting with the Palestinian authority president Mahmoud Abbas was forced to take place in Amman, Jordan rather than occupied Jerusalem. Kerry is advocating “peace talks”, but has not taken strong action against the Israeli obstacles to peace which include denying the right of return of the Palestinian refugees and increasing illegal settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem; as Kerry arrived into the Middle East, Netanyahu approved yet another settlement expansion into East Jerusalem. Further, the US continues to fund the Israeli occupation government and military operations to the tune of over $3 billion a year.

The Palestinians will continue to knock on the gates of Jerusalem to highlight the injustices of the Israeli occupation.

Apartheid Wall checkpoint is closed, blocking Palestinians from their occupied capital (Photo by: ISM)

Photo essay: Gaza joins the Global March to Jerusalem

10th June 2013 | International Solidarity Movement | Beit Hanoun, Occupied Palestine

Thousands of Palestinians from across the Gaza Strip rallied by the closed Erez checkpoint on Friday, marking al-Naksa (the setback), Israel’s 1967 seizure of the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip, Syria’s Golan Heights, and Sinai Peninsula, ceded to Egypt in 1982.

Israel’s capture of the territories included the ethnic cleansing of over 400,000 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and West Bank, following al-Nakba (the catastrophe), Zionist militias the and Israeli army’s 1948 expulsion of over 750,000 from lands now claimed by Israel.

The effort was part of the second annual Global March to Jerusalem, an international mobilization protesting Israel’s attacks on Palestinians in Jerusalem and promising the return of refugees ethnically cleansed by its military forces.

According to a statement released today by the Global March to Jerusalem, “marches and sit-ins were held on Friday in more than 40 countries around the world, in addition to Palestine. They included a march to the northern border of the Gaza Strip and demonstrations in Jerusalem at the entrance to the Old City where Occupation Forces suppressed and arrested participants.

“Mass demonstrations took place in Gaza, Jordan, Egypt, Tunis, Mauritania, and Morocco, as well as in Yemen, Malaysia, Pakistan and Turkey. Likewise, there were large demonstrations in capitals and cities across Europe and North America, including gatherings in front of Israeli embassies.”

Photo essay: Gas, frisbees and the Apartheid Wall in Ni’lin

24th May 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Team Nablus | Ni’lin, Occupied Palestine

Friday demonstrations continue in the village of Ni’lin in protest against the Occupation and Apartheid Wall which runs through the village’s land. Background on the effects of the Occupation in Ni’lin is here.

During this particular demonstration on the 24th May 2013, there were no injuries and those who were climbing the wall (as pictured below) were able to cover one of the Israeli Military Skunk Trucks in red paint. The paint enveloped the front and side windows, putting the Skunk truck out of use for this particular demonstration.

The Apartheid Wall separating the village of Ni’lin from its land, 90% of which has been lost to Israel.

Quote by Martin Luther King on the Apartheid Wall.

Demonstrator climbing the Wall.

Fires are set by demonstrators to damage the Wall.

Damage to the Apartheid Wall after the efforts of the villagers of Ni’lin during demonstrations every Friday.

A protester writes a message to Israeli soldiers on a frisbee.

The frisbee is thrown over the Wall to the soldiers, with a letter attached imploring them to challenge their government.

Soldiers respond with multiple volleys of teargas. In recent weeks, fires set by teargas has damaged hundreds of olive trees and Ni’lin’s agricultural land.

Red Crescent paramedic on the scene in case of injury – five people have been killed by the Israeli occupation forces since demonstrations started in Ni’lin five years ago.