Category: Press Releases - Page 200 - International Solidarity Movement

Victory for Bil’in and the Non-Violent Struggle

MEDIA ADVISORY: Victory for the residents of Bil’in village

4th September 2007:

Following popular non-violent resistance through joint struggle between Palestinian, Israeli and international activists, a court decision has been made in favor of the petition by Bilin village to change the current route of the Apartheid Wall.

The court decision dictates that the military are obliged to plan and implement a new route for the wall. It has been ordered that the new path will allow for all Palestinian agricultural land to be on the Palestinian side. Furthermore, the court has ordered that the state should not take into consideration the area earmarked for Stage B of the planned expansion of Matityahu East.

During the proceedings, it was of note that the court made a rarely heard reference to military considerations and security. The court stated that in respect of security considerations, the current route of the wall runs in a topographically inferior path thus indicating that the original route had been planned with the prime consideration being the planned expansion of the settlement rather than of security.

The Supreme Court decision comes after years of continued struggle and resistance to the illegal confiscation of village lands. It is seen as a victory for the path of non-violent resistance and joint initiative from both the Palestinian and Israeli participants.

Although today’s decision is seen a victory in the struggle against oppressive consequences of the Israeli Occupation and a victory for the villagers of Bilin, it is important to recognize that the route of the wall still deviates from internationally recognized armistice lines and is still in violation of international law, resolutions and advisories made within the International Court of Justice and within the UN Security Council.

For more information please go to the Israeli Supreme Court Website, www.court.gov.il
(unfortunately the decision is only in Hebrew)

Alternatively please contact:

Neta Golan: 059 8 184169
Attorney Michael Sfard: 0544 713930 alternatively 03 607 345
Mohammed Khatib : 0 594 135 3636
Jonathan Pollock: 054 632 7736

Non-Violent Friday in Al Walaja

Al Walaja 31/8/07

On Friday August 31st at 12:30pm Palestinians, Israelis and international activists met at the village of Al Walaja north of Bethlehem to demonstrate against the construction of the annexation wall, which when complete will surround Al Walaja on three sides. The wall will also make a large amount of land owned by Palestinians inaccessible, and will therefore be used by the illegal settlements that surround Al Walaja for expansion.

The demonstration started with prayer on a road used by trucks and other machinery used to build the wall. Following this, one of the community leaders spoke briefly informing people to move up onto another track that leads directly to where the wall is being constructed. As around 40 demonstrators walked up the track they were met by a line of 20 IOF soldiers. The demonstrators then continued non-violently and sat in front of the soldiers. The soldiers stood directly behind the sitting demonstrators and a stand-off remained for twenty minutes. After twenty minutes the army began by threatening to arrest the press forcing them to leave the area. Following this, the soldiers gave a 5 minute ultimatum to the demonstrators ordering them to leave the track, and they showed a military order in Hebrew and with no map, declaring the area a closed military zone. After a heated debate between 6 community leaders; one of whom wanted to stay on the track and the other 5 who wanted to leave; an agreement to leave was made.

All the demonstrators followed the decision and left the area peacefully.

PEACE ACTIVISTS UNDER ARREST FOR PREVENTING THE REBUILDING OF MILITARY ROADBLOCK IN PALESTINIAN VILLAGE

For Immediate Release Contact Molly, ISM Media 059943157
September 1, 2007

Yesterday in Sarra village near Nablus, four human rights defenders from Germany, the United States, The United Kingdom and Canada were arrested for blocking Israeli military bulldozers from rebuilding a roadblock between the village and the city of Nablus. Israeli activists were also arrested at the same demonstration. The activists spent the night at Ariel police station and are currently awaiting arraignment. Two of the activists, women from the UK and Canada, were forced to spend the night handcuffed and shackled at the ankles in the hallway of the police station. The protest was held after Israeli authorities had broken their promise to remove the roadblock permanently. Israeli soldiers arrived at the village last Saturday, forcing a Palestinian villager to use his tractor to close the roadblock, despite Israeli promises that the roadblock would be permanently opened. When residents removed the roadblock once again, soldiers returned during the night, retaliating against them for having taken non-violent direct action. The soldiers shot out water tanks, roughed up residents and interrogated them.

This incident comes only days after Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Haaretz newspaper haaretz.com/hasen/spages/898487.html that he plans to replace roadblocks in the West Bank with mobile checkpoints to ease restrictions on Palestinian daily life. The Sarra roadblock is one of hundreds of barriers that the Israeli authorities have erected to prevent travel between Palestinian communities. According to Btselem, the Israelis have constructed 217 dirt piles at entrances to villages or to block roads, 86 fences along roadways, 12 trenches that prevent vehicles from crossing, 93 locked gates at entrances to villages, with the keys held by the army. These physical barriers accompany the hundreds of permanent and surprise checkpoints which the Israeli army maintains inside the West Bank, limiting freedom of movement for the occupied Palestinian population.

According to a May report released by the World Bank, “freedom of movement and access for Palestinians within the West Bank is the exception rather than the norm…the restrictions arising from closure…create such a high level of uncertainty and inefficiency that the normal conduct of business becomes exceedingly difficult and stymies the growth and investment which is necessary to fuel economic revival.”
Full World Bank report HERE: siteresources.worldbank.org/INTWESTBANKGAZA/Resources/WestBankrestrictions9Mayfinal.pd

The village plans to continue to use non-violent means to resolve this issue.
###

Video: Soldiers Beat Palestinian Demonstrators in Bil’in, Arrest Two Israelis and Detain One International

Today marked the 134th consecutive demonstration in Bil’in Village against settlement activity on village land and against the building of the apartheid wall, which separates local villagers from their farmland. About 40 Palestinian, Israeli and international demonstrators participated this week. The weekly demonstration accompanies a legal challenge to the legitimacy of the attempt to expand settlements in the area, which recently resulted in the collapse of the Heftsiba real estate company, an Israeli firm which is responsible for much of the settlement construction and sales in the West Bank.

Soldiers Billy-Club Protesters in Bil’in

Protesters marched, sang and waved Palestinian flags as they approached soldiers waiting for them at the apartheid wall. Demonstrators managed to march to within 50 feet of the soldiers before soldiers threw the first wave of teargas. Many protesters stayed at the front of the demonstration, pushing away a barbed wire barrier designed to keep Palestinians from approaching their land. Despite the soldiers’ attempts to disperse the crowd with teargas and sound bombs, many Palestinians along with Israeli and international supporters, continued forward. As several Palestinian men with their arms outstreched, showing that they had no weapons and no intentions of using violence, approached the soldiers, the soldiers took out billy-clubs and began beating them. One Palestinian man was beaten on his knees and one was beaten in three separate places on his legs. At this point, soldiers moved to grab the camera of an international woman filming the incident. They were unsuccessful in taking her camera, but detained her for one hour before allowing her to leave. Two Israelis were also arrested in the fray, and were still in custody at the time this report was written.

Two Palestinians Face Israeli Soldiers While Others Run From the Blows

Court Rejects Two Petitions Against Fence Route

High Court says alternative fence route near Alfei Manashe drafted by government causes ‘proportionate harm’ to Palestinian residents in area
Aviram Zino

08.29.07, 12:39 / Israel News

The High Court of Justice on Wednesday rejected two petitions filed by Palestinian villagers and Israeli citizens against the security fence route near the Jewish town of Alfei Menashe.

The court rejected Palestinian claims that the route should be moved away from their homes and lands toward the Green Line, saying the fence will cause “proportionate harm” to their livelihoods.

The court also rejected a petition by the residents of Alfei Menashe who demanded the route encroach on more Palestinian lands, arguing
that its proximity exposed their settlement to the threat of terror attacks from the West Bank.

In 2004, the residents of four Palestinian villages whose homes were to be encircled by the fence and cut off from the rest of the West Bank won a High Court hearing against the fence route.

The court then ordered the army to draft a new route that would not cut off the residents and would give them free access to the West
Bank.

In Wednesday’s hearing, the court approved a new route that would keep two of the four villages outside the fence and would give the residents of the remaining villages free access to the West Bank through a tunnel.

“The new route significantly reduced the harm to the Palestinian residents,” High Court President Dorit Beinish said in her ruling.

Justice Beinish said the new route offered a balanced solution to the security and humanitarian concerns of the state and the Palestinian residents.