As part of the colonial conflict in Palestine, Israel has instituted a policy of apartheid that separates Palestinians from Israelis and Palestinians from each other, creating an oppressive and racially discriminatory system. It denies basic Palestinian rights to land, education, movement, and housing while devastating the economy, trying to undermine civil society, and forcing continuous displacement upon the majority of Palestinians.
You are invited to submit short [less than 5 minutes] videos on the theme of Israeli Apartheid.
Videos should reflect the nature, realities, and/or consequences of the apartheid policy in Israel, in the occupied West Bank and Gaza and against Palestinian refugees in the diaspora.
Three residents were injured today in Bil’in along with dozens who suffered gas inhalation in a protest against the Wall and settlement building.
The demonstration was called by the Popular Committee Against the Wall in Bil’in and was joined by residents of Bil’in, and international and Israeli activists. The protesters carried posters and banners calling to end the occupation, stop settlement building, stop detention and end the siege on Gaza.
The protest marched toward the Wall, where an Israeli military unit was located behind blocks of cement. The army had earlier closed the gate in the Wall with razor wire. When the protesters attempted to reach the land confiscated behind the Wall, the army fired tear gas and rubber bullets. Journalist Abbas Al-Momani and Rateb Abu Rahmah, a member of the Popular Committee, were each hit with tear gas canisters in their heads. Edo Medix, an Israeli activist, was also injured.
Last Thursday, a delegation from the US consulate in Jerusalem visited Bil’in and was welcomed by the Popular Committee Against the Wall. The delegation listened to a presentation about the experience that the residents have had in resisting the occupation, the building of the Wall and enduring late-night raids by the army. The delegation also visited the memorial statue for Basem Abu Rahmah.
In other news, Abedallah Abu Rahmah, the coordinator of the Popular Committee Against the Wall, is still detained in the Israeli prison after his hearing last Thursday at Ofer military court. The Israeli court accused Abu Rahmah of incitement, holding weapons and throwing stones at Israeli soldiers. The Israeli court also charged Abu Rahmah with a violation they call “Participating in a protest against the wall”. Finally, Abu Rahmah was charged with “avoiding the Israeli justice” by avoiding Israeli checkpoints seven times and not being home when the Israeli army broke into his home three times. Abu Rahmah was arrested from his home on October 10, 2009 during a raid by the Israeli army.
The defense attorney responded to the accusations and the charge of holding weapons by stating that collecting empty tear gas canisters, fired rubber bullets and used sound grenades from Israeli soldiers to use them in local and international galleries is not a crime.
The Israeli court ruled on Thursday, January 7 to continue the detention of Abedallah Abu Rahmah and kept his charges open until his next court hearing. This decision was made in the absence of the defense attorney.
The Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Bil’in condemned this decision and the detention of another Bil’in activist, Adeeb Abu Rahmah, for more than 5 months for his participation in demonstrations.
As part of a recent surge in popular protest in the West Bank, about 300 demonstrators occupied and blocked the main road in near the Halamish settlement for over two hours. The demonstrators, twenty of which were injured by rubber-coated bullets, protested recent land grabs.
About 300 people took to the street today in the West Bank village of Nabbi Saleh, north-west of Ramallah, in protest of recent land grab by the adjacent Jewish-only settlement of Halamish. The protesters occupied and blocked the main street leading to the settlement, and amidst clouds of tear gas and whizzing rubber-coated bullets, managed to hold it for over two hours. A group of demonstrators also managed to reach the area that was recently taken over by settlers.
Settlers who came down from Halamish threw stones and shot live rounds of demonstrators. Soldiers who were present took no actions to stop them. Following the demonstration the army invaded Nabbi Salleh, where clashes ensued.
Twenty of Nabbi Saleh’s residents were struck by rubber-coated bullets, and dozens suffered from tear gas inhalation.
Bassem Tamimi, one organizers of the demonstration said that “For three weeks we have been prevented from reaching our land for because of the settlers who occupied it. In any reasonable place, we would be allowed to just drive them out by force, but they have the army on their side even though the law is on our side. Under the occupation we are not even allowed to merely protest”.
Demonstrations were also held today in N’ilin, Bil’in – where a journalist and a demonstrator were lightly injured, and in alMaasara where the army invaded the village.
I mark the beginning of the new decade imprisoned in a military detention camp. Nevertheless, from within the occupation′s holding cell I meet the New Year with determination and hope.
I know that Israel’s military campaign to imprison the leadership of the Palestinian popular struggle shows that our non-violent struggle is effective. The occupation is threatened by our growing movement and is therefore trying to shut us down. What Israel′s leaders do not understand is that popular struggle cannot be stopped by our imprisonment.
Whether we are confined in the open-air prison that Gaza has been transformed into, in military prisons in the West Bank, or in our own villages surrounded by the Apartheid Wall, arrests and persecution do not weaken us. They only strengthen our commitment to turning 2010 into a year of liberation through unarmed grassroots resistance to the occupation.
The price I and many others pay in freedom does not deter us. I wish that my two young daughters and baby son would not have to pay this price together with me. But for my son and daughters, for their future, we must continue our struggle for freedom.
This year, the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee will expand on the achievements of 2009, a year in which you amplified our popular demonstrations in Palestine with international boycott campaigns and international legal actions under universal jurisdiction.
In my village, Bil’in, Israeli tycoon, Lev Leviev and Africa-Israel, the corporation he controls, are implicated in illegal construction of settlements on our stolen land, as well as the lands of many other Palestinian villages and cities. Adalah-NY is leading an international campaign to show Leviev that war crimes have their price.
Our village has sued two Canadian companies for their role in the construction and marketing of new settlement units on village land cut off by Israel’s Apartheid Wall. The legal proceedings in this precedent-setting case began in the Canadian courts last summer and are ongoing.
Bil’in has become the graveyard of Israeli real estate empires. One after another, these companies are approaching bankruptcy as the costs of building on stolen Palestinian land are driven higher than the profits.
Unlike Israel, we have no nuclear weapons or army, but we do not need them. The justness of our cause earns us your support. No army, no prison and no wall can stop us.
Yours,
Abdallah Abu Rahmah
From the Ofer Military Detention Camp
This letter from Bil′in′s Abdallah Abu Rahmah was conveyed from his prison cell by his lawyers. Please circulate widely.
At around 4pm, on Saturday 2 January 2010 part of a main road in the Palestinian neighbourhood of Silwan collapsed. The section of road runs above tunneling work carried out by the Elad settler organisation. Despite the road collapsing in the mid-afternoon, it was not until 8pm that Israeli police arrived at the scene, after an Israeli bus serving the settler population drove into the hole in the road.
Silwan is a Palestinian village on the hills south of the Old City of Jerusalem, captured in 1967 by the Israeli army. It is one of several neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem where the Israeli state and settler organisations are forcing Palestinians from their homes. Almost 90 houses in the area are currently threatened with demolition, potentially displacing 1,000 – 1,500 residents and no construction permits have been issued for Palestinians in the area since 1967. Excavation works represent another threat to Palestinian residents; literally undermining their homes.
Tunneling by the Elad settler organisation, which also runs the ‘City of David’ tourist site in Silwan, has been frequently criticised for undermining the Palestinian neighbourhood. Elad director David Be’eri was filmed admitting that his excavations are carried out under people’s houses. He described the excavation method in which “we built from the top down” and “everything’s standing in the air” [due to the removal of fill]. “Then [the engineer] says: ‘you have to shut the whole thing’ [because of danger of collapse]. I tell him: ‘are you crazy?’”
Land located under people’s houses is considered their property under Israeli law, and digging in densely populated areas without the permission of property owners is therefore illegal. Despite this, ‘archaeological’ digging continues throughout the Old City and its surroundings with the complicity of Israeli authorities, police and courts. Also in the tape mentioned above, made about a year ago, the founding head of Elad, David Be’eri, says: “At a certain point we came to court. The judge approached me and said, ‘you’re digging under their houses.’ I said ‘I’m digging under their houses? King David dug under their houses. I’m just cleaning.’ He said to me, ‘Clean as much as possible.’ Since then, we’re just cleaning; we’re not digging.”
Less than six months ago a large part of the same road gave way meters from the most recent collapse. Local people say they are concerned that their homes may also collapse in the future. Subsidence caused by the tunneling is visible on buildings and roads around the excavation area. A Palestinian kindergarten opened in 1990 is located directly next to the opening of the tunnel. In recent months several large cracks have appeared in the building. Classes were affected by today’s road collapse. Several children protested the undermining of their school and the whole area.
This afternoon, work was underway to repair the collapsed area. Reconstruction is expected to take between one and two days, further disrupting the neighbourhood. Meanwhile, residents of Silwan remain concerned that future collapses will be more dangerous.
Elad Director admits undermining Palestinian homes:
