Category: Press Releases

Bil’in: Undercovers arrest Palestinian youth at his workplace

Popular Struggle Coordination Committee

19 November 2009

In an escalation of the recent arrest campaign conducted by the Israeli military in attempt to crush the popular struggle against the Wall in the village, an undercover army unit invaded Bil’in this morning and arrested a local youth, 19 year old Mohammad Yassin.

In the morning hours of Thursday, 19 November 2009, a civilian Isuzu pickup with undercover soldiers dressed as Palestinians, drove into the village of Bil’in, searching for residents suspected of organizing and participating in the village’s weekly demonstrations. At around 9am, the soldiers arrived at the garage where Yassin works and arrested him. The arrest involved the beating of Yassin himself, as well as of his brother and his mother, who assumed that the disguised soldiers were just random by-passers attacking their kin.

The use of the undercover army units to capture ‘wanted’ people that are suspected of nothing else than participating in and planning of grassroots demonstrations, represent an escalation of the arrest campaign the army is conducting against the residents of the village. In addition to Yassin, another 27 Bil’in residents were arrested for their involvement in the demonstrations since the 23 June 2009. Among them is Adeeb Abu Rahma, who has been held in detention for more than four months under a charge of ‘incitement’ – a euphemism for organizing demonstrations.

Recently, attorney Gaby Lasky, who represents Bil’in’s detainees, was informed by the military prosecution that the army intends to put an end to the demonstrations through use legal procedures against demonstrators. Lasky stated today that “This is a blatant example of political persecution using legal means, because the charges and the arrests are being carried out not for legal purposes but with political motivations. It is important to remember that it is the state that is in contempt of a High Court of Justice ruling, which affirmed two years ago that it is the demonstrators who have justice on their side, and instructed to move the route of the Wall in the area – something that has not been done yet.”

The secretary of the village council and member of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, Mohammed Khatib, stated that “the Army is determined to crush the popular resistance but we will continue to demand our rights even if we are all forced to do so from inside military prison cells. Even the Israeli court ruled that the Wall on our land is not legal and has to be dismantled. Despite this, not only has the Wall not moved even an inch, but the Army comes to imprison us for struggling for our land, while it itself is breaking the law – its own law.

Extensive Israeli campaign against Palestinian civil construction activities in Area C

Palestinian Centre for Human Rights

19 November 2009

New demolition orders issued against 60 Palestinian houses, apartments and other civilian facilities in the West Bank

Israeli Occupation Forces have escalated their systematic campaign against Palestinian civilian construction activities in areas under their full control according to the Oslo Accords signed by the government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1993. Areas classified as Areas C in the West Bank are currently subjected to extensive Israeli campaigns aimed at undermining the Palestinian presence. Israel is also expanding construction activities in settlements and the annexation of new areas of Palestinian lands in Area C, including occupied East Jerusalem and its surroundings. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) strongly condemns all these measures taken by Israel and stresses the legal status of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). PCHR calls upon the international community to urgently and promptly take serious action to compel the government of Israel, the occupying power, to put an end to all illegal measures. The international community’s inaction with respect to the impunity granted to Israel encourages Israel to commit further violations of International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law.

According to investigations conducted by PCHR, the Organization and Construction Department of the Israeli Civil Administration issued 35 orders to demolish or stop construction works in houses and other civilian facilities in Areas C. In addition, the Israeli Municipality of Jerusalem issued an order to demolish an apartment building of 25 flats in occupied East Jerusalem. Approximately 275 individuals, including 180 children, live in these houses and apartments. According to Palestinian sources, since the beginning of 2009, Israel has issued approximately 2,300 demolition orders.

Recently, Israel issued orders to demolish or stop construction works in Palestinian houses or civilian establishment as follows:

* On 8 November 2009, the Israeli Municipality of Jerusalem issued a decision to bulldoze an apartment building belonging to Sharhabil ‘Alqam in Tal al-Foul quarter in Beit Hanina village, north of Jerusalem. ‘Alqam began construction works in his apartment building in 2002 on an area of 500 m2. The 7-storey building is composed of 25 residential apartments and was sold to Palestinian families comprising more than 150 members.
* On 12 October 2009, Israeli forces delivered notices to stop construction works in 12 houses and in a bird farm in al-Salahat area in Roujib village, east of Nablus. Five of the threatened houses are resided by 33 individuals, including 22 children.
* Also on 12 November 2009, Israeli forces delivered notices to 11 Palestinian civilians to demolish or stop construction works in houses and establishments in Um al-Kheir area to southeast of Yatta village, south of Hebron. The notices threaten 17 establishments, including residential houses where 57 individuals, including 39 children, live. The majority of the owners of the threatened establishments are members of the Bedouin al-Hathalin tribe. The owners of these establishments stated that notices were delivered to demolish or stop construction works in establishments that are between 50 and 300 meters to the north of the fence of “Karme’el” settlement.
* On 18 November 2009, Israeli forces delivered notices to demolish five houses in ‘Azzoun village, east of Qalqilia. The houses, home to 35 individuals, including 20 children, are located in the east of ‘Azzoun village where the Israeli settlement of “Ma’ale Shamron” is being established.
* Israeli forces also delivered a notice to al-Bireh Municipality to stop construction works in al-Bira Municipality’s International Stadium under the pretext of the lack of a building license. Sources from al-Bira Municipality stated that the Israeli Civil Administration in “Beit Eil” settlement delivered a notice to the contractor to stop construction works in the Stadium under the pretext of lacking a building license saying the project is in Area C.

In light of the above, PCHR reiterates that:

First: according to International Humanitarian Law and numerous UN Resolutions, the Palestinian West Bank, including east Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip are classified as occupied territory.

Second: the natural growth of the Palestinian families requires that these families implement construction activities in order to meet their growing living needs. Because of the complications of getting building licenses, Palestinians are forced to carry out construction works above their houses to meet their residential needs.

Third: Settlement activities in OPT are illegal and constitute a war crime. Israeli forces apply an apartheid system regarding construction works in Palestinian villages on one hand and in Israeli settlements on the other.

PCHR strongly condemns Israel’s recent measures and all settlement activities and plans in the occupied West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, and calls upon:

1. The High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to fulfill their legal and moral obligations under Article 1 of the Convention to ensure Israel’s respect for the Convention in the OPT. PCHR believes that the conspiracy of silence practiced by the international community has encouraged Israel to act as if it is above the law and to continue to violate international human rights and humanitarian law, including continued measures to create a Jewish majority in occupied East Jerusalem.
2. The international community to take urgent and prompt action in order to compel the government of Israel to put an end to all settlement activities in the OPT, especially in occupied East Jerusalem, and to dismantle Israeli settlements, which constitute a war crime under International Humanitarian Law.
3. The European Union/ EU member States to activate Article 2 of the Euro-Israel Association Agreement, which provides that Israel must respect human rights as a precondition for economic cooperation between the EU States and Israel. PCHR further calls upon the EU States to prohibit importation of goods produced in illegal Israeli settlements in the OPT.

Settler incursions of Palestinian homes in Sheikh Jarrah

18 November 2009

On Wednesday 18 November 2009 at 10:30am, one of the settlers who are occupying the Ghawi family house in Sheikh Jarrah, climbed over a wall in order to enter the neighbouring Palestinian property. Amal Qassem, who lives in the house, was shocked to discover the settler in her backyard and another settler handing tools and a ladder over the wall to him. They stated that they were going to repair water leaks in the wall and refused to leave.

Amal Qassem reported the trespassing to the police who arrived 30 minutes later. Only after that the settlers finally left.

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Settler trespassing the Palestinian property
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The second settler involved in the attempt to enter the Qassem property

Later that day, at 2pm, another two settlers living in the occupied Gawi family house, attempted to enter a Palestinian property across the street. Claiming they had the right to enter, they opened the gate leading to the house owned by the Kurd family and walked through, making their way to the half of the property which has been occupied by settler security forces since the forceful takeover on 3 November 2009. The family, who gathered outside of their house succeeded in their attempt to stop the settlers, who eventually left.

The settler’s claims to have the right to enter the house, however, contradict a verbal agreement reached with the Israeli police on 3 November 2009, the day of the house take-over, which instructed the settlers to stay away from the house and allowed their security forces to stand on the street outside the gate. Despite this agreement, settler security forces have continued to occupy the house. The al-Kurd family have asked the security forces several times to show police or court orders that give them the right to be on their property, but the security forces have failed to produce such a document. On the day after the settlers’ provocative action, an Israeli court issued a written statement that the court will reach a decision about the occupied house on 29 November.

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Kurd family posting the latest court order on the door of their occupied house

The al-Kurds have become the fourth Sheikh Jarrah family whose house (or part of it) has been occupied by settlers in the last year. So far, 60 people have been left homeless. In total, 28 families living in the Karm Al-Ja’ouni neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, located directly north of the Old City, face imminent eviction from their homes.

In a strategic plan, settlers have been utilizing discriminatory laws to expand their presence in Occupied East Jerusalem. Palestinians, who face difficulties in acquiring building permits from the municipality, are often left with no legal recourse for extending their homes to accompany their growing families. The Israeli authorities exercise their abilities to demolish and evict Palestinian residents, while ignoring building violations from the Israeli population in East Jerusalem.

Eighteen demonstrators arrested after a gate in the Wall was breached in Deir alGhussoun

Popular Struggle Coordination Committee

14 November 2009

The protesters were arrested as the demonstration was coming to an end, by soldiers who invaded the village and flanked them from the back.

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Eighteen demonstrators were arrested today in the West Bank village of Deir alGhussoun, north of Tulkarem, after Israel’s Separation Wall was breached by Palestinian, Israeli and international activists. The protesters intended to march to village’s lands that were left isolated behind the Wall, and managed to break open one of the barrier’s gates.

The demonstrators managed to break the lock on the gate by rocking it back and forth, despite the presence of soldiers, but could not reach their lands, as they were being shot at with rubber-coated steel bullets and teargaW. One demonstrator was lightly injured after being struck with a rubber-coated bullet in the leg.

As the demonstration was coming to an end, a large group of soldiers surprised a group of the protesters by closing in on them from the direction of the village, and arrested eighteen of the village’s youth.

Today’s demonstration was the opening salvo for a public campaign by the Deir elGhussoun municipality and the affected farmers, which will accompany an appeal the Israeli High Court of Justice to remove the already-built Wall from the village’s land. The said appeal is expected to be filed in the near future.

The wall in the area of the village cuts deep into West Bank land, leaving about 2,500 dunams (620 acres) of the village’s land west of the Wall (on the “Israeli” side), effecting 120 land owners, dozens of which do not receive permits from the Israeli army to even minimally tend to their lands.

In an advisory opinion issued in July 2004, the International Court of Justice in the Hague has declared the path of Israel’s Wall in the West Bank illegal in its entirety, and ordered its removal. To date, Israel continues to disregard international law, and continues to build the Wall and expand settlements.

Protesters reenacted the fall of the Berlin Wall to mark its 20th anniversary: 8 meter tall concrete wall dividing Ramallah and Jerusalem tipped-over

Popular Struggle Coordination Committee

9 November 2009

In a symbolic reenactment of the event that changed the world 20 years ago, demonstrators from all over the West Bank managed to topple a section of Israel’s wall, 8 meters of reinforced concrete in height, near the infamous Qalandiya Checkpoint.

On the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall, hundreds of demonstrators from across the West Bank convened in Qalandiya to demand the immediate dismantling of Israel’s wall. In a dramatic turn of events, protesters managed to tip-over a a section of the wall, opening a passage in this strategic and symbolic location at the entrance to East-Jerusalem.

Exactly twenty years ago today the Berlin Wall came crumbling down in two days that changed the world forever. Today, a wall twice as high and five times as long is being built by Israel in the West Bank, in blatant contempt of international law, to separate Palestinians from their lands.

Despite the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion of 2004, that pronounced Israel’s wall illegal, and called for its removal, no significant changes on the ground were made. After the demonstration ended, Mushir Ghazzal, an organizer with the popular struggle coordination committee, said that “Today’s events prove that we must not wait for Israel to end its occupation on its own – we Palestinians should do it with our own two hands. Like the Berlin Wall at the time, Israel’s wall seems to us an undefiable reality, but twice this week it has caved in to the pressure of ordinary people fighting for their rights.”

The anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall has been declared an international day of action against Israel’s barrier. Last Friday, mass demonstrations were staged simultaneously in three villages along the path of the wall, including in Ni’ilin where protesters managed, for the first time ever in the West Bank, to topple the 8 meter tall concrete wall there.