40 Years is Enough!
Six Days of Action against the Occupation of Palestine – June 6-12 2007 Global Day of Action – June 9 2007 from Kibush 40 Coalition, 5 May 2007
The second week of June will mark forty years since the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Six Day war. This is now the longest enduring military occupation in the world. While the Israeli government evades negotiations that would end the occupation and lead to a just peace, the lives of Palestinians continue to be crushed daily by closures and economic strangulation, their land confiscated for settlements and their communities made into prisons by the Segregation Wall.
At the same time, violence in the region continues to supply ideological fuel for the G8 governments in their ‘War on Terror’, explicitly declared as a never-ending, pre-emptive global war which justifies erasing civil liberties, supporting oppressive regimes, and attacking refugees and migrants. We are all victims of this war: in Palestine and Israel, in Iraq and in Colombia, in Germany and in the U.S.A.
With the occupation at forty it should be clear to all that its forceful hegemony cannot be resisted by established political means alone. This is both morally insufficient and doomed to practical failure. As a strategic and practical alternative, the “Occupation 40” coalition is calling for six days of actions to mark forty years of occupation, on June 6 to 12 2007. A Global Day of Action has also been called on June 9.
The coalition is a democratic and non-hierarchical action platform of grassroots Israeli groups and organizations. Peace organizations, artists, students’ groups, internal refugees, anarchists, animal rights activists, communists and individuals participate in this initiative. The six-day convergence in Israel will include demonstrations, direct actions, discussions and cultural events.
This is a call-out for international direct actions against the occupation on June 6-12. We call in particular for actions against corporations profiting directly from the occupation that publicly shame them and/or cause them economic damage. Information on corporations involved with the occupation is available HERE and many other sources, including a recent report by War on Want available HERE.
We hope that actions will be organized to be decentralized and trust them to the initiative and self-organization of affinity groups around the world.These days of action fit well into this summer’s international action calendar:
• June 5 – An international day of action against militarization, wars
and occupations, in the run-up to the G8 summit in Germany.
• June 6-8 – Protests against the G8, with the participation of Palestinian and Israeli activists and Palestine Solidarity groups from around Europe.
• June 6-12 – 6 days of action against the Occupation, in Palestine/Israel and Internationally
• June 9 – Rally in London, Global Day of Action Against the Occupation
• June 10-11– Protest, teach-in and lobby in Washington DC
Please distribute this call widely, and please organize for action with your groups and networks. We can use this symbolic moment to hit out at those who benefit and profit from the pain and despair in Palestine, and to send the Israeli and G8 governments a message they cannot ignore.
Action in al Khas and al-Numan villages dazes Israeli forces by ISM Beit Ummar, 5 May 2007
Demonstrators reach the wall in al-Numan
Residents of Al-Nu’man and Al-Khas villages today took part in a non-violent demonstration at the Israeli Apartheid Wall, which divides families and relatives between the two villages. The two villages were practically one before the building of this fence. In fact, the municipal offices were centered only in Al-Khas, as was the mosque and the school.
Al-Nu’man is a small village situated southeast of Jerusalem and northeast of Bethlehem, a few hundred meters north of Beit Sahour. In 1967, Israel illegally de facto annexed East Jerusalem and surrounding areas, including the land of al-Nu’man village. However, the inhabitants of the village were recorded as West Bank residents and given West Bank IDs, rather than the Jerusalem IDs received by most Palestinians in the illegally annexed areas. As West Bank ID holders, these residents are considered by Israel to be illegally residing in Jerusalem simply by being in their homes.
A petition submitted by residents of Al-Nu’man village, supported by the Al-Haq and Defence for Children International- Palestine Section humanitarian agencies will be heard by Jerusalem High Court of Justice at 9:00am on Sunday 13 May 2007.
Today’s demonstration comes as part of the “Stop the Bleeding of Bethlehem” campaign, which aims to mobilize residents of the Bethlehem area to non-violently resist all forms of the Israeli occupation, including the wall, military checkpoints and land confiscation.
At around 11am, some 80 protestors, including Israeli and foreign peace and solidarity activists, converged on either side of the fence, which has besieged both villages. Activists from Tayyush came from the Israeli side with posters against the occupation, calling for peace. On the other side, people from the Christian Peacemakers’ Team, the International Solidarity Movement and the Alternative Information Center, held posters and banners about the occupation in Bethlehem, and both groups started their march to the Wall.
The Israeli group attempted to arrive at the checkpoint, walking along the main street from the village of An Numan, but were met by Israeli troops. The soldiers were prepared in advance and blocked the street, just a few meters from the outskirts of the village. At that point, the demonstrators started to run down the hill and managed to arrive at the fence, despite the presence of the Israeli military.
At the same time, on the other side of the fence, activists armed only with Palestinian flags started their march to the fence through the village’s agricultural lands. Upon arrival at the razor wire barrier, just five meters in front of the fence, they trampled the barbed spikes, crossing the temporary barricade to arrive exactly in the shadow of the fence.
From the Israeli side, demonstrators were met by three military vehicles and two jeeps of border police, full of Israeli soldiers and policemen. The Israeli forces shot tear gas and sound grenades at the unarmed protesters in an attempt to disperse them. Two unarmed demonstrators were injured when tear gas canisters were shot into their legs. Each suffered minor cuts and light burns.
After a few minutes of confusion, the situation calmed down and on both sides, demonstrators started throwing colored ribbons and strings from one side to the other, while relatives from each village shook hands through the fence and spoke of their lives since their enforced separation.
The demonstrators started singing in Hebrew and Arabic, but soldiers and police officers drowned out their songs by screaming at the peaceful activists “to go far from the fence”, threatening to shoot those who did not comply. The demonstrators managed to remain in place for half an hour, while arguing with soldiers and policeman, but no further clashes were reported.
The Israeli soldiers then started pushing people away from the fence from the An Numan side, while a military Hummer and a jeep entered Al Khas village to meet those demonstrators who were withdrawing. The troops argued with the protesters for almost twenty minutes, trying to prevent them from taking pictures, before giving up and leaving the scene.
Photo by Polly Bangoriad
Behind them, the fence was covered with colored ribbons, alongside posters calling for peace and the end of the occupation. From both sides, dazed soldiers struggled to understand how to remove the ribbons from the fence and were left looking at each other in confusion.
The demonstration ended peacefully, and no arrests were reported.
Settlers attack Palestinians with stones, assault four human rights workers by ISM Hebron, 5 May 2007
Tel Rumeida, HEBRON– At approximately 3PM this afternoon two Human Rights Workers HRWs were walking through the olive grove in the Tel Rumeida district of Hebron.
The HRWs noticed Israeli settlers trespassing inside the house of Issa Amro, the Palestinian property owner. Israeli forces have deemed Amro’s house a “closed military zone,” which means it is “illegal” for Amro to access his own house. This also means that Israeli settlers are forbidden to enter the area.
The First Attack
The HRWs sat approx. 20 meters away from the property, under an olive tree, to document the illegal trespassing. Three settler boys, aged around 10, approached the HRWs. The settlers began to yell at them, saying ‘turn off your camera’ (which was off), ‘go home’, ‘get out of here!” Settler then began shouting ‘Nazi’ and threatened physical violence. The Israeli soldier that was posted inside Amro’s house came down into the grove and intervened. The settler told the HRWs “they are just children, I’m sorry”, and “you can video here if you want, you can do whatever you want”. The settlers returned to the far side Amro’s house (away from the HRWs) and the HRWs moved back a further 20m to avoid provoking further attacks, but maintained a presence in the grove.
Five minutes later, the same three settler boys, accompanied by a further 2 two pre-teen boys and two adults (aged early twenties) advanced towards the HRWs. The boy in the front was carrying a length of thick plastic pipe, approx 1.5metres. These settlers continued the same verbal threats whilst surrounding the HRWs – and lifting the pipe into a ‘strike position’. Some of the other settlers picked up sticks and prodded the HRWs as the boy with the pipe hit and pushed at one HRW. The other HRW shouted for the soldier to intervene.
The verbal threats and physical violence was increasing when the soldier arrived and the soldier attempted to deescalate the settler attack. At this point, the women of the Abu Talal family moved onto their stairway overlooking the grove to film the attack. When the settler boys noticed the Palestinians filming, the settlers became instantly hostile. One of the settler boys ran at them, throwing stones, causing them to take shelter. The rest of the settlers yelled taunts and made obscene gestures.
During the entire attack, the adult settlers had stood aside laughing – it was only at this point, when the HRWs requested the presence of police to the soldier, that the adult settlers ushered the younger settlers away.
Some footage of the latter part of the attack was captured, primarily the stone throwing towards the Palestinian woman filming.
The Second Attack
At approximately 5pm, 3 HRWs went to aid 2 other Internationals who were being attacked by settlers on the stairway and path overlooking the Beit Hadassah settlement. The HRWs were alerted to the incident taking place by shouting and yelling and the sudden movement of Israeli soldiers and police running up the stairs.
As the HRWs approached, they saw from the bottom of the stairs a group of 20 young settler boys ranging in age from 8-15, surrounding the 2 HRWs, and soldiers and border police attempting to intervene as the settler boys physically and verbally attacked them.
The 3 HRWs filmed from the bottom in an attempt to capture evidence of the settlers assault on the HRWs.
A large group of adult settlers then rushed at the 3 HRWs, pushing and grabbing at their cameras and shoving them up the street away from the incident. As they shoved the HRWs away, the settlers shouted, “go home,” “this is your fault,” “we’re not the terrorists,” “you’re ugly from the inside and out.” The settler adults were joined by a group of young teen boys (from the earlier attack on HRWs in the olive grove) who used a large sheet of cardboard to block the video cameras recording the assault, and joined in yelling abuse and threats at the three female HRWs.
During the entire attack, the adult settlers had stood aside laughing – it was only at this point, when the HRWs requested the presence of police to the soldier, that the adult settlers ushered the younger settlers away.
More on the Second Attack
(from another point of view)
At approximately 5pm, two human rights workers (HRWs) were prevented by Israeli settler children and armed Israeli men from walking on a path beside Abraham’s Well. As the HRWs returned on the path back toward Shuhadda Street, they noticed Israeli settler children attemtping to block the stairs leading to the Cortuba School, a Palestinian girls’ school, and Palestinian houses. The HRWs decided to stay on the path in order to help protect any Palestinian who might come to use the path to get to their homes.
Due to the presence of other internationals, the settlers could not block the stairs. A settler teacher with seven students sat and blocked the junction of the two paths leading to the school and homes. A Palestinian woman tried to walk the path and past the children. She was, however, prevented by the settler children.
One of the HRWs went to accompany the Palestinian while the other filmed. Once the Palestinian woman passed, the International shut off the camera in order not to provoke the settlers. However, the settler children who were sitting with the teacher and other children coming from the stairs surrounded the two Internationals and began to beat them with their hands and feet. The teacher was not responding to the calls from the HRWs to stop the children. All this happened in front of the eyes of soldiers that were standing on the roof of the occupied house just behind the paths.
Finally, after a few minutes, a soldier ran to help the Internationals, however, even he could not stop the settlers. A policeman came up from the stairs and led the HRWs down the stairs away from the settlers. No further action was taken by the policeman to detain any of the settlers involved in the attack. One of the HRWs showed a policeman the footprint of a settler child’s foot on his stomach.
Previous press release: by the ISM Media Crew
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Today, Saturday May 5, Palestinians and four international human rights workers (HRWs) were attacked by Israeli settlers in the Tel Rumeida district of Hebron.
At approx. 15:00, three Israeli settlers, around the ages of 10-12, approached two female HRWs. According to Astrid, an HRW from New Zealand, the settlers were screaming, “Get out of here!” and “Stop filming!” Astrid claimed that she was not filming when the settlers attacked. The HRWs backed away from the scene “so that the settlers wouldn’t see us as provoking them,” said Astrid.
The settlers returned accompanied by two male settlers in their 20’s and at least 2 additional settler youth joined the three other settlers. Together, the settlers started to hit, push and poke the HRWs with a long pipe. HRWs yelled for help from the Israeli soldier that was stationed nearby. The soldier intervened to stop the settler violence against the HRWs.
The American HRW asked the soldier if he witnessed what had happened. The soldier, according to the HRW, confirmed that he saw the incident, stating, “I know you were not filming. But you are allowed to anyways. You can do whatever you want.”
Palestinian women from the Hadad family’s house were viewing the scene from their yard. When they started to film the incident, the settlers then turned their attention to the Palestinians and began to attack them with rocks. Though, according to the HRWs, the soldier was trying to prevent the stone throwing, settlers managed to throw a few stoned before the Palestinians that were filming retreated inside the house.
The Palestinians then handed the tape over to the HRWs in order to transfer, and should be available soon.
Aprrox. 2 hours later, a group of 8-9 settlers, settlers attacked two more human rights workers– one from Greece and one from Germany.
Describing this recent incident, Astrid, who was attacked earlier, said that she heard screaming coming from up the hill. There were 8-9 settlers, including children and adults. “They were all screaming.”
Ortrud, from Greece, described the incident: “Israeli settlers were blocking the pathway from the Palestinians. When a Palestinian woman wanted to cross, we joined her while walking past the violent settlers. When the woman was to safety, Israeli settlers attacked us. They kicked me on my feet and all over. They kicked George in the stomach too.”
George, from Greece, described the incident: “I was walking a Palestinian woman past the settlers. She was afraid of being attacked. When the Palestinian crossed to safety, settlers attacked me from behind. There is a shoe print on the back of my shirt from the settler that kicked me.”
In Tel Rumeida, Palestinians are not allowed to drive any type of cars, including buses, taxis, ambulances, and fire trucks. Israeli settler civilians are allowed to carry guns, while Palestinians are not allowed to have weapons of any kind. Palestinians are subjected to random detentions and ID checks (Israeli settlers are not). Israeli soldiers frequently invade Palestinian homes or use their roofs as outposts the security forces in the neighborhood are Israeli only and ignore complaints by Palestinians. Last month, Israeli settlers set fire to a Palestinian resident’s car. Israeli soldiers refused to allow Palestinian fire trucks to enter Tel Rumeida to extinguish the fire.
For more info, contact:
ISM Media Office, 0599-943-157, 02-297-1824
Anti-Wall protest in Bethlehem by Palestinian workers in honor of Labor Day by Geroge Rishmawi, 4 May 2007
Photo, George Rishmawi
Some two hundred peaceful demonstrators in Bethlehem protested on Friday against the construction of the annexation wall in the village of Wadi Al-Neiss. The demonstration included mostly Palestinian workers in addition to international peace activists and observers to commemorate Labor day on May 1.
A large number of Israeli soldiers stopped the demonstrators who carried signs demanding an end to the construction of the wall which is annexing a very wide agricultural area to Israel. Troops prevented the demonstrators from reaching the construction site and attempted to arrest one of the protesters, however, other demonstrators managed to release him, before he was taken by the soldiers.
The protest started with the Friday prayers being held in the village close to the confiscated land. Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, Minister of Information and a number of Parliament Members in addition to the governor of Bethlehem Mr. Salah Al-Taamari joined the action. Dr. Barghouthi spoke to the crowed quoting the Minister of Interior of South Africa who was visiting Bethlehem before the action, that “the apartheid system Israel is making will fall as it fell in South Africa”.
Several other local leaders spoke, including Shaher Sa’ed, head of the Union of Palestinian Workers, who emphasized that the construction of the wall is not for security, but to increase poverty in Palestine, by separating Palestinians from their main source of income.
Samer Jaber, one of the organizers of the event, said this nonviolent action in Wadi Al-Neiss is part of the Stop the Bleeding of Bethlehem campaign which was launched two weeks ago with the goal of mobilizing the people of Bethlehem to resist the various forms of the Israeli occupation, including the wall, settlements, military checkpoints and roadblocks.
Israeli settlers attack Palestinian farmers and Israeli policemen by the ISM Media Crew, 4 May 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 4th, 2007
Two weeks ago, villagers from al Khader tore down razor wire surrounding an abandoned Palestinian-owned building near their village. The building which has been standing since before 1948 is for use by the residents of al Khader.
On May 2nd, settlers from the Hanael settlement came into al Khader and beat up villagers as retaliation for the cutting of the razor wire the previous week. The settlers have been trying to gain control of the abandoned Palestinian building.
Today approximately 200 settlers trespassed on the village farmland and beat up two Palestinian farmers from al Khader who were demonstrating against the recent violence and lack of access to their land. Two Palestinians were detained and later released by the army. Soldiers were also assaulted by the settlers. The army did not respond to settler violence against the Palestinians, citing the fact that they were on a holiday as the reason they were unable intervene.
The settlement Hanael gets its name from Hanan, a settler who was given permission to serve 2 years out of an 8 year prison sentence for armed robbery of a bank in Israel on the actual settlement itself. The settlement has been ruled illegal by the Israeli court.
Farmers from al Khader are planning an upcoming tree planting event on the village farmland and will be seeking volunteers.
For more information, contact
Samer, 0522531172
ISM Media Office, 0599943157
