Category: Press Releases

(VIDEO) 4 Injured at Bil’in Demonstration

Greek-Chilean shot in head and leg with rubber-coated steel bullets
by the ISM Media Crew


Video filmed by Emad Bornat

For 28 months, Palestinians from the West Bank village of Bil’in have been joined by Israeli and international solidarity activists to non-violently protest the confiscation of Palestinian land and Israel’s Apartheid Wall.


Iyad, head of the Bil’in popular committee, kicked in the groin by Israeli soldiers, Photo by Jonas

Today, before reaching their destination at the Wall, the Israeli army set up a roadblock of razor wire, separating the protesters from the Wall. As demonstrators crossed the razor wire, Occupation soldiers started to throw tear gas and sound grenades.

Immediately, Israeli soldiers kidnapped Mohammad Khatib of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements. As more activists arrived at the scene, soldiers became more aggressive and started to push and hit people, including camerapersons and activists.

Iyad, from Bil’in, was kicked in his groin by an Israeli soldier. Iyad fell to the ground in pain. Soldiers hovered above him, preventing other activists from helping, until another soldier took a tear gas canisters and threw it towards Iyad as he lay on the ground.

Martinez, an American activist, said, “They threw the tear gas right into Iyad’s lap. Even the soldiers above Iyad were surprised and had to flee from that spot. Three other activists intervened and helped Iyad from the ground and got him to safety.”

Soldiers continually fired tear gas until most of the demonstrators retreated into the field of olive trees.

As the demonstration made its way further back into the village, soldiers started to fire projectile tear gas cannisters and shoot rubber-coated steel bullets at the demonstrators. Cristian, a Greek-Chilean cameraman was hit with two bullets simultaneously, one in the temple and one in the left leg. Cristian told the ISM, “I’m sure they took aim and shot me purposefully. They were about 25 meters away. I fell down and was knocked unconscious for a few seconds.”

Palestinian medical relief workers loaded Cristian onto the stretcher and tended his wounds.

Issa Mahmoud and Ibrahim Bornat, two other Palestinian activists, were also wounded by rubber bullets, Issa in the leg and Ibrahim in the arm.


Activist shot in arm by rubber-coated steel bullet, photo by Jonas

After regrouping, demonstrators made their way to another location in the Wall. Soldiers redirected their attention to this small crowd of activists, and started to fire rubber bullets and tear gas in their direction. One tear gas canister managed to created a small flame. This then grew into a large fire and quickly spread about 150 meters towards the olive grove. Activists could be seen attempting to extinguish the growing flame with branches of leaves.


Tear gas cannister catches land on fire, Photo by Jonas

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سبعة جرحى في مسيرة بلعين الأسبوعية
احتراق عشرات الدونمات المزروعة بأشجار الزيتون
الجمعة 1\6\2007

خرج أهالي قرية بلعين اليوم بعد صلاة الحمعة في مسيرة حاشدة وقد شارك فيها مجموعة من المتضامنين الدوليين والإسرائيليين ، ورفع المتظاهرون اليافطات المنددة بالاحتلال بالإضافة إلى الأعلام الفلسطينية، وقد جابوا شوارع القرية وهم يرددون الهتافات المنددة ببناء الجدار والمستوطنات ،وعند اقترابهم من منطقة الجدار حيث كان الجيش مكمنا هناك، وقد منع المتظاهرين من عبور الأسلاك الشائكة التي وضعها على الشارع المؤدي إلى الجدار وهدد باطلاق النار على كل من يجتازه ، وحين محاولة المتظاهرين العبور بدأ باطلاق القنابل الغازية والصوتية والرصاص المعدني المغلف بالمطاط ؛مما أدى إلى إصابة سبعة متظاهرين بينهم متضامن دولي من اليونان يدعى كرسيان، أما بقية المصابين فهم الطفل طلال مصطفى الخطيب ،إياد برناط رئيس اللجنة الشعبية ، عيسى محمود عيسى أبو رحمة، إبراهيم عبدالفتاح برناط وشقيقه راني ، سمير سليمان ياسين .

من جهة أخرى تم اعتقال ثلاثة من أعضاء اللجنة الشعبية وهم : محمد الخطيب ،راتب أبو رحمة، عبد الفتاح برناط ، حيث تم احتجازهم لعدة ساعات قبل الافراج عنهم وقد تم وضعهم تحت أشعة الشمس الحارة . هذا وقد داهمت قوات الاحتلال يوم أمس الأول القرية وقامت بتفتيش منزل هيثم الخطيب واعتقلت شقيقه سعد محمد جمال الخطيب (24)سنة .

من ناحية أخرى ونتيجة استخدام الجيش المفرط لقنابل الغاز المسيل للدموع تم احراق عشرات الدونمات المزروعة بأشجار الزيتون التي تعود ملكيتها لكل من : محمد إبراهيم أبو رحمة ، صالح الخطيب وابنه فيصل .

لمزيد من المعلومات مراجعة:
عبدالله أبو رحمة – منسق اللجنة الشعبية لمقاومة الجدار والاستيطان في بلعين
0599107069 أو 0547258210 أو 022489043

Bili’n Tractor still confiscated in an example of Israeli “Justice”

by the ISM Media Crew


“Free” Access to the Palestinian enclave at Metityahu East settlement

The Israeli Civil administration (the administrative arm of the military rule in the West Bank) is demanding 5428 shekels ($1357) to cover the expenses of towing the tractor they confiscated from Bil’in farmers, Tuesday the 29th, to the military base in the settlement of Beit El. The tractor was confiscated when it uncovered illegal infrastructure buried in the Palestinian enclave inside the Metityahu Mizrah settlement. In addition, the Israeli authorities are demanding that the tractor driver and Mohammad Khatib from the Bili’n committee against the wall and settlements, who rented the tractor, be investigated by the police and that each of them submit a signed statement that they will not use the tractor again to do work on the Palestinian land in the enclave. Until these conditions are filled, the Israeli Civil administration will continue holding the confiscated tractor in the military base.


On Tuesday 29th May 2007, residents of Bil’in, accompanied by Israeli peace activists, came to assert their right to work the land in one of the enclaves. Israeli peace activists filmed as Bil’in residents began to plough the land, using a tractor brought from Israel, as Bil’in’s tractor is not being allowed to cross the gate in the barrier, despite access for agricultural work being promised by the Supreme Court. They soon exposed a sewage pit that had been buried under dirt and debris. The plough hit a pipe leading to the pit, causing a leak. The head of security in Modiin Elite arrived on the scene, informing those present that they must immediately stop working on the enclave, saying that such work was ‘life threatening’ due to underground electricity cables which could electrocute farmers using standard agricultural tools. After this warning the workers immediately stopped work, but soon military forces arrived and declared the area a Closed Military Zone, confiscating the tractor for being used for doing development work without a permit.


Palestinian women in front of Buildings built without permits by the real estate companies in Matityahu East

From 2000 to 2006 hundreds of housing units were built in Matityahu East without permits within full knowledge and without any hindrance, from the Israeli Authorities. However, when the Palestinian owners of the land bring a tractor for agricultural purposes, within minutes, the civil administration, private security guards, police and military all work together to “enforce the law” claiming that the Palestinians are doing development work without a permit.

The High Planning Commission, a branch of the Civil Administration, submitted a new master plan for the settlement that was meant to retrospectively legitimize ‘large scale illegal building’ of Matityahu east committed by real estate companies Green Park and Kheftzeba. In this plan, regarding the land that was acknowledged as privately owned Palestinian land, it was determined that, “in every place where there was building or change in purpose in the enclave, all the structures and building debris will be removed from the area, and it will be covered in 40cm of earth … undisturbed access will be allowed to the enclave… this is a condition to be give validity to this plan”. On January 2007, despite objections raised by Bil’in villagers who pointed out, among other things, that the enclaves had not been restored nor was free access granted to them, the new master plan for the settlement of Maityahu East was approved by the high commission of planning and building in Beit El.

In 1991 Israel annexed 1,100 dunums (275 acres) of the land of Bil’in. The confiscation was justified by reference to an old Ottoman-era law allowing for confiscation of ‘unused’ land for State purposes. In the same year the villagers appealed to the Supreme Court. The Court approved the majority of the land confiscation, but acknowledged that the plots densely planted with olive trees were clearly being used. These plots were not confiscated because their use by villagers from Bil’in demonstrated their ownership . However, even though the court had explicitly recognized that these plots belong to the villagers of Bil’in, somehow these plots have subsequently become the enclaves in question.


Eyad Burnat, head of the Bil’in popular committee against the wall, looking at the houses the real estate companies built without permits in Matityahu East from within the “Palestinian Enclave”

The land was handed over to two private real estate companies, “Heftziba” and “Green Park,” after it was confiscated by the Israeli authorities. This follows a typical pattern of settlement expansion, whereby Palestinian land is first declared Israeli state property and then eventually distributed to Israelis for private use. In 2000, the Metityahu Mizrach settlement was built without permits not only on the land that was confiscated, but also on the land that the Israeli Supreme Court recognized as privately owned Palestinian land. The route of the wall in Bil’in is designed not only to protect the settlers of Matityahu Mizrah but was designed according to the master plan of the settlement to allow for its future expansion. See B’tselem Report

In January 2006, the Israeli Supreme Court issued a temporary order in one appeal case (143/06), freezing the building and population of the Matityahu East settlement after the illegal building of 42 residential buildings – 20 of them without any building permits and 22 additional ones according to illegal building permits produced by the local committee of Modiin Elite.

The Israeli Supreme Court will hear the appeal (1526/07) this Sunday, submitted by Bil’in residents and Peace Now, against the decision of the High Commission of Planning in the civil administration to retrospectively legitimize ‘large scale illegal building’ in the settlement Matityahu East. Almost the entire settlement of Matityahu East – in which the building of 2722 residential units is planned – occupies land belonging to the village of Bil’in, west of the current route of the separation fence. The new settlement is the main reason for the route of the barrier in Bil’in. The state is requesting that the Supreme Court remove the freeze on building and allow more settlers to move in, since the plan for the settlement was approved by the high commission for planning and building in Beit El.

In addition to the 5428 shekels that is need to be paid in order to release the confiscated tractor, each day that the Israeli authorities hold the tractor, the owner is losing his main means of income. To help the Bil’in committee against the wall and settlements release the tractor and compensate the driver please consider sending a donation to the ISM noting that the money is for this purpose.

PACBI : Boycotting Israeli Apartheid Back on the Agenda

PACBI May 30, 2007

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) salutes the historic decision by the University and College Union (UCU) Congress today to support motions that endorse the logic of academic boycott against Israel, in response to the complicity of the
Israeli academy in perpetuating Israel’s illegal military occupation and apartheid system.
Academic boycott has been advocated in the past as an effective tool in resisting injustice. In the 1920s, Mahatma Gandhi called for boycotting British-run academic institutions, to increase Indian self-reliance and also to protest the role of those institutions in maintaining British
colonial domination over India. In the 1950s, the African National Congress (ANC) called for a comprehensive boycott of the entire South African academy, as a means to further isolate the apartheid regime. To their credit, British academics were among the very first to adopt the
latter boycott. Moral consistency makes it imperative to hold Israel to the same standards.

Israel is now widely recognized as a state that actually practices apartheid, as evidenced in recent declarations by international figures from Jimmy carter and UN Special Rapporteur on human rights Prof. John Dugard to Archbishop Desmond Tutu and South African government minister Ronnie Kasrils, among many others. During the ongoing occupation of Palestinian land, Israel’s policies have included house demolitions; Jews-only colonies and roads; uprooting hundreds of thousands of trees; indiscriminate killings of Palestinian civilians, particularly children; relentless theft of land and water resources; and denying millions of their freedom of movement by slicing up the occupied Palestinian territory into Bantustans — some entirely caged by walls, fences and hundreds of roadblocks.

Throughout forty years of Israeli military occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), Israeli academics have duly continued to serve in the occupation army, thereby participating in, or at least witnessing, crimes committed on a daily basis against
the civilian population of Palestine. No Israeli academic institution, association, or union has ever publicly opposed Israel’s occupation and colonization, its system of racial discrimination against its own Palestinian citizens, or its obstinate denial of the internationally-sanctioned rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties. Furthermore, the Israeli academy has been in direct or indirect collusion with the military-intelligence establishment, providing it with “academic” research services to sustain its oppression.

This courageous and morally laudable decision by the UCU to apply effective pressure against Israel in the pursuit of justice and genuine peace is only the latest measure adopted by an international community that can no longer tolerate Israel’s impunity in trashing human rights
principles and international law. In the last few months alone, groups heeding — to various degrees — Palestinian calls for boycott and effective pressure against Israel have included the British National Union of Journalists (NUJ); Aosdana, the Irish state-sponsored academy
of artists; Congress Of South African Trade Unions (COSATU); and prominent British and international architects led by Architects for Peace and Justice in Palestine (APJP).

Once again, the taboo has been shattered. It has now become more legitimate than ever to denounce Israel’s oppressive policies and to hold the state and all its complicit institutions accountable for human rights abuses, war crimes, and the longest military occupation in modern
history. The Israeli academy will no longer be able to enjoy international recognition, cooperation, and generous support while remaining an accessory to crimes committed against the Palestinians.

Palestinians are now more confident than ever that international civil society is indeed capable of shouldering the moral responsibility of standing up to injustice and demanding freedom, self-determination, and unmitigated equality for all.

www.PACBI.org
Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel

Illegal settlement infrastructure exposed on Palestinian land

Bil’in 29/05/07- Two days before the Israeli Supreme Court will hear the appeal (1526/07) submitted by Bil’in residents and Peace Now against the decision of the High Commission of Planning in the civil administration to ‘launder’ the illegal building in the settlement Matityahu East, agricultural work on land that the Israeli Civil Administration has defined as a private Palestinian ‘enclave’ was stopped after a tractor used for ploughing exposed the sewage pipes of the Matityahu East settlement. The head of the security of Modiin Elite warned the farmers that working the land was endangering their lives, because of buried electricity cables..

On January 2007 a new master plan for the settlement of Matityahu East, an outpost of Modiin Elite, was approved with the conditions that enclaves – that the state recognizes as privately owned by Bil’in residents – be restored, building debris removed and free access be granted for agricultural work by Palestinian farmers. Almost all of the Matityahu East settlement – in which the building of 2722 residential units are planned – occupies land belonging to the village of Bil’in, West of the current route of the separation fence, six kilometers east of the green line. The state admitted in court that the new settlement is the main reason for the current route of the barrier in Bil’in. The new plan was meant to retrospectively legitimize ‘large scale illegal building’ in Matityahu by real estate companies Green Park and Kheftzeba, who built hundreds of living units in complete opposition to planning and building laws.

Today, on Tuesday 29th May 2007, residents of Bil’in, accompanied by Israeli peace activists, came to assert their right to work the land in one of the enclaves. The Israeli peace activists filmed as Bil’in residents began to plough the land, using a tractor brought from Israel (Bil’in’s tractor is not being allowed to cross the gate in the barrier, despite access for agricultural work being promised by the Supreme court and a condition of the master plan). They soon exposed a sewage pit that had been buried under dirt and debris. The plough hit a pipe leading to the pit, causing a leak.

Shuki Levin, the head of security in Modiin Elite arrived on the scene, informing those present that they must immediately stop working on the enclave and saying that such work was ‘life threatening’ due to underground electricity cables which could electrocute farmers using standard agricultural tools. After this warning the workers immediately stopped work, but soon military forces arrived and declared the area a Closed Military Zone, confiscating the tractor on the claim that it had committed work without a permit.

The events of today in Matityahu expose again the reality of the neighbourhood’s new master plan. Utilities including sewage, water and electricity facilities lie a few dozen centimeters under the ground, making agricultural work impossible in complete contradiction to the instructions of the master plan. Any agricultural work requiring machinery like tractors endanger both the farmer working the land the settlers living in the neighbourhood. In contradiction to the demands of the plan, there is no access to the enclave for the Palestinian landowners or possibility of agricultural work.

The High Planning Committee in Beit El that approved the new master plan in January 2007 was well aware of these facts. In the hearing, they were presented with photographs proving that settlement infrastructure and building debris is buried in the enclave. However the planning committee decided to serve the interests of the law-flouting real estate sharks by approving the plan, completely ignoring these facts. The events today offer compelling evidence that the commitment to restoring the enclaves declared by the High Committee of Planning is merely a fig leaf covering the reality on the ground, which is that the master plan of Matityahu effectively confiscates all the land of the enclaves, uses it illegally to contain the infrastructure of the settlement and prevents any use by its legal owners, the Palestinian residents of Bil’in.

In 1991 Israel annexed 1,100 dunums (275 acres) of the land of Bil’in. The confiscation was justified by reference to an old Ottoman-era law allowing for confiscation of ‘unused’ land for State purposes. In the same year the villagers appealed to the Supreme Court – the Court approved the majority of the land confiscation, but acknowledged that some of the plots in which the olive trees were densely planted were being used. These plots were not confiscated and their ownership by villagers from Bil’in was acknowledged by the court at that time. These plots became the enclaves in question. A decade after the confiscation, Israeli settlements began to be built. This has followed a typical pattern of settlement expansion, whereby Palestinian land is first declared State property and then eventually distributed to Israelis for private use.

VIDEO FOOTAGE AVAILABLE ON REQUEST
For more information: Mohammad Khatib 0545573285
Attorney Michael Sfard 0544713930 or 035607345

Israeli Forces Carry Out Targeted Assassination of Palestinian in Ramallah

For report by Sam Bahour click

AL-HAQ PRESS RELEASE

As a human rights organisation dedicated to the promotion and protection of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), Al-Haq is gravely disturbed by the extrajudicial execution carried out on 29 May 2007, on Ramallah Main Street, near the city centre. A detailed report of the events will be prepared once Al-Haq has carried out further investigations. The information below is based on first hand testimony gathered by Al-Haq staff members in the immediate aftermath of the event.

At approximately 17:00 an Israeli force of about 20 soldiers, including under cover agents disguised as civilians, got out of a truck and a car on the Main Street of Ramallah and killed 22 year-old Omar Mohammed Abd al-Halim. The victim was standing outside Nazareth restaurant with another man. As a member of a Palestinian security force he was carrying a walkie-talkie and a firearm when the Israeli military forces appeared. The soldiers made no attempt to arrest Omar Mohammed Abd al-Halim. As he attempted to escape on foot he was shot in the neck by a uniformed soldier, and fell to the ground. An undercover soldier in civilian clothes then shot approximately six bullets into his body, finally kicking him to make sure that he was dead. A number of civilian bystanders were forced into Nazareth restaurant by the Israeli soldiers. In the meantime Palestinians had gathered and began to throw stones. The Israeli forces, reinforced by approximately ten military jeeps, responded with gunfire, lasting for approximately half an hour, during which eight civilians were injured.

Two ambulances of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society attempted to reach the area to provide medical assistance to the injured, but were ordered at gunpoint to stop by the Israeli forces. When the ambulances tried to proceed the Israeli soldiers opened fire and one of the ambulances was hit in the tyres. Consequently it was immobilised and could not reach the injured.

Al-Haq is deeply concerned at this and other recent extrajudicial executions of Palestinians carried out by Israeli military forces throughout the OPT. Omar Mohammed Abd al-Halim could have been arrested, rather than executed, after being wounded. The practice of targeted assassinations, officially endorsed by the Israeli executive and judicial branches, constitutes an inherent violation of the right to life and the right to a fair trial as enshrined in binding customary and conventional international law. Also, the execution of an injured person amounts to a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Additionally, under customary international humanitarian law, medical personnel exclusively assigned to medical duties must be respected and protected in all circumstances. The term medical personnel clearly includes ambulance services. The attack on the ambulances described above clearly violates this essential rule of international law and constitutes a war crime.

Finally the conduct of the operation by the Israeli forces raises serious concerns as to the disregard for the protection accorded to civilians under international humanitarian law. The operation was carried out at 17:00 in the afternoon, a busy time of day, on a crowded street near the centre of the city. Further, Israeli undercover agents operating within a civilian population increases the risk of casualties.