Category: Press Releases - Page 201 - International Solidarity Movement

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.
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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.

Call to Action!!! Defiant village resfuses to be blocked off any longer.

Sarra, Nablus region

On the 25th August, Israeli Occupation Forces entered the village of Sarra to close a roadblock that had been previously opened. The Monday before, (20th August) international activists joined Palestinian villagers in removing a road block that turned a 5 minute journey to Nablus into half an hour. There was to be another demonstration the Friday after, but it was canceled because the local mayor said the DCO had told him they would open the roadblock permanently on Saturday.

The activists that were ready to join the demonstration were dubious over the generosity of the military and saw it as a potential tactic to avert the demonstration, and it turned out it was. The soldiers came on Saturday, forcing a Palestinian villager to use his tractor to close the roadblock. After the soldiers left, the man re-opened the roadblock. Then the soldiers came again, however this time at night. From one in the morning to 2:30am they entered homes and interrogated the inhabitants, occupied houses and kicked out the families inside, confiscated knives and CDs from houses, pushed people around and shot live ammunition into the doorways of shops and homes, as well as into the water tanks above the homes.

International Human Rights Workers went the day after to take pictures of the damage and speak to the people living there. The people spoken to were convinced that trusting the Israelis was no longer an option. They had shown their goodwill by canceling a demonstration at the suggestion the roadblocks would be opened and had been penalized for their good faith. They Israelis had shown that they were interested in only one thing, the continued harassment of Palestinians in the open air prisons their towns are becoming.

Many people now are ready to demonstrate non-violently this Friday, August 31, at 1:00pm, after the prayer. They are calling on all people who are interested in joining their struggle against injustice to join them on this day. People are talking about bringing signs and Palestinian flags, and as we are organizing people from all around the area we are limited only by our creativity.

For more information please contact Rose 054 224 9179

Olive Harvest: Take your place in Solidarity with the Palestinians

Olive Harvest 2007: You Are Needed More Than Ever!

Photo by Asa Winstanley
Join Us in Palestine for the 2007 Olive Harvest Campaign! Palestinian farmers and agricultural organizations, in coordination with the International Solidarity Movement, the International Women’s Peace Service, and the Christian Peacemaker Team announce the 2007 Olive Harvest Campaign. The campaign will begin on October 16th, after the end of Ramadan, and will continue for six to eight weeks, depending on the size of the harvest.
Photo by Asa Winstanley
The Israeli government continues to seize Palestinian land throughout the West Bank to expand settlements and build its illegal annexation barrier. As this goes on, Palestinian communities continue to resist Israel’s attempts to cement its control of the West Bank and imprison Palestinians behind walls and fences.

The Olive Harvest is an annual affirmation of Palestinians’ historical, spiritual and economic connection to their land, and a
rejection of Israeli efforts to seize it. Palestinians are the indigenous people of this land who have farmed olives here for
thousands of years. The annual harvest is a symbol of life for Palestinian communities.

Agricultural productivity over the last seven years has decreased dramatically because of closures and sieges, which prohibit access to farms and markets. Israel’s barrier and increased settler attacks on farmers and their families in the fields have further diminished Palestinians’ ability to earn a living. Over half a million olive and fruit trees have been destroyed since September 2000. Palestinian agriculture is being destroyed by the policies of the Israeli government and the rights of Palestinians to their land and to a livelihood are being denied.

International and Israeli volunteers join Palestinians each year to harvest olives, in spite of efforts by Israeli settlers, soldiers and bulldozers to destroy this vital piece of Palestinian life.

How It Works

The Olive Harvest Campaign provides a wonderful opportunity to spend time with Palestinian families in their olive groves and homes. The presence of internationals during harvest time has proven in the past to help limit and decrease the severity of attacks. Last year (2006) was the first year since the beginning of the intifada that a farmer was not murdered while trying to harvest his olives. One farmer was severely beaten, and in that instance, no internationals or Israelis were present. Your presence makes all the difference in reducing the levels of violence Palestinians experience while standing up for their
rights.

After a two-day training session, volunteers for the Olive Harvest Campaign will stay in Palestinian homes or international apartments in West Bank communities and accompany Palestinian families to their olive groves to serve as witnesses to document and expose attacks by settlers — supported by the Israeli Army — on farmers and their families.

In addition to olive harvest, volunteers will have the opportunity to join Palestinians in nonviolent protests throughout the West Bank against the construction of the annexation barrier, settlements and settlement roads.

This 2007 Olive Harvest Campaign is part of the ongoing work of the International Solidarity Movement, a Palestinian-led movement comprising of Palestinian, Israeli and international activists working to raise awareness about the struggle for Palestinian freedom and an end to the occupation. ISM uses nonviolent, direct-action methods of resistance to confront and challenge the Israeli persecution of Palestinians. With your help and participation, we will expose the injustice of the Israeli occupation and send a message to the world that the occupation must end and the wall must fall!

For more information on preparation, travel and arrival in Palestine, please see the ISM Palestine website, www.palsolidarity.org/main/join/. ISM support groups located around the world can help answer your questions about the movement and Olive Harvest Campaign. Many will provide training sessions. For information on how to contact local ISM
support groups worldwide, please also see the ISM website.