Nablus Summer Campaign Program

July 21st-28th 2005

There will be five direct actions in the Nablus area, four in the surrounding villages and one at the main checkpoint.

Friday July 22nd: Asira Village
Direct Action to open Sabaatash (17), the main road from Asira to Nablus.

Asira village, with a population of 12 000, has been under closure since the start of this intifada. The main road connecting the village to the town has been closed by earth mounds, forcing the residents to take a time-consuming and costly longer route into town through another checkpoint where they may be further delayed or even denied passage.

This has a particularly negative affect on students living in the village who attend Nablus’ An Njah University, who find they must pay 20 shekels for the longer trip only to be potentially denied entry at the Beit Iba checkpoint because they are under 25 years of age.

Farmers are also greatly affected. Asira has been famous for the high quality of its olive oil and used to host a thriving market, attracting buyers from great distances. Now the market is gone, and farmers have difficulty taking their oil as far as Nablus. Some Asira families try to spend olive oil rather than cash in the village shops. The economy of the village has been destroyed by the closure.

In April there was a direct nonviolent action to open Sabaatash road, with protestors marching close to an Israeli military base, from the village to the road block. International and Israeli activists walked the route with villagers who spontaneously removed the roadblocks. Local TV celebrated the first taxi to take the Sabaatash route to Nablus in four years. However, within hours the army closed the road again, declaring the area a closed military zone and constructing a new block. The army had watched and filmed the entire action from a Palestinian home they had occupied (monitor this house during future actions). Locals report a significantly increased army presence in the area from the date of that action until today. Soldiers have begun to man the roadblock regularly and have fired at innocent citizens. Residents now feel unable to even safely walk around the roadblocks. Shepherds, who have become reluctant to use their adjacent part of their lands, will join in this latest demonstration with their flocks.

The action will be to walk Sabaatash from Nablus to Asira where we will meet the villagers and walk back towards Nablus. This time residents may want to walk the route without moving the roadblocks.

Israeli activists welcome

For more information on Friday’s action or other information about the summer campaign, contact Mohammed (ISM Nablus) 052-222 3374 or 054-621-8759. Email: m_need@hotmail.com

Sunday, July 24th: Salem Village
Action to work on land threatened by settler attacks

Salem is a farming village, population 5000, to the east of Nablus. Since the start of this intifada, Salem and its neighboring villages Asmut and Deir Al Hatab have been closed from Nablus to the west and Beit Furik to the southeast by ditches several kilometers in length, at points 3 meters deep and 5 meters wide. At times, sewage from the settlement floods part of the land and prevents people crossing the fields. The road across is controlled by a part-time checkpoint. On 18th, July ISMers were present when soldiers at the checkpoint shot a man crossing the field.

Elon More settlement has confiscated much of the land belonging to these farming villages. The land still nominally belonging to the Palestinians is subject to severe restrictions by the Israeli army, who only allow the people to work their land on a few specified days.

Earlier this year a further 85 dunums of land was taken from Deir Al Hatab, which has now lost all of its land up to 30m from the last house. Officially Israel says the land is taken for “security of the military base” rather than settlement expansion but the base is only there for the expanding settlement.

Elon More settlers have a history of making violent attacks on Palestinians. In April of this year, a group of 40 Elon More settlers were rounded up by soldiers in Al Bidan Valley. Another group set fire to a large area of the olive grove.

The action in Salem will be to plant trees on the land separated from the village by a “settlers-only” road.

Monday, July 25th: Huwara Checkpoint and Military Base
Demonstration for Prisoners and Against Closure of Nablus

Since the start of this intifada, Nablus has been surrounded by checkpoints – four of which are currently active. Nablus city is still subject to closure and often inaccessible to the residents of surrounding villages who are dependent on the services in the town. There are three main Israeli military bases surrounding the city, with additional outposts on the hilltops around the town and region.

There are five large settlements close to the town. They are currently expanding and stealing yet more land from the Palestinian villages in the region.

There are currently 8000 Palestinians, many of whom are women and children, in Israeli jails. 1400 of these prisoners come from Nablus. On the day of the action, international activists will join Palestinian medics, prisoners’ families and other groups. We will assemble at the bomb-damaged government buildings, from which we will take buses towards Huwara, before marching to the checkpoint. Prisoners’ mothers will read letters for their sons. We aim to show solidarity with the prisoners, highlighting their plight to the media, and to protest the continued restrictions on movement in the Nablus region.

July 26th and 27th – Tana
Action to reclaim razed village

On July 5th, Israeli forces demolished the entire village of Tana, near Beit Furik, Nablus. Tana was a small farming village in the Jordan valley in one of the longest continually-inhabited areas of the world. Residents say the area is mentioned in the holy books and was known to be populated 3500 years ago. The village mosque, the only structure not to be demolished, has stood for several hundred years.

Residents received one day’s notice that their homes were to be demolished, informed by a piece of paper left outside one of their dwellings. The villagers knew no one to call and the razing of their twenty-two homes went ahead unhindered. The UN estimates 170 persons have been “displaced”, yet the villagers say Tana was home to 400 people at the height of the season.

The paper announcing the demolition says that the villagers had built their homes without Israeli permission. Their caves and stone constructions are hundreds of years old. In recent years they have added steel and concrete structures to the front of their caves. A school house was built six years ago and this too was destroyed. When the army destroyed the village, they demolished not only the steel structures but the caves themselves and even the villagers’ cars.

In 1989, the villagers had a court case in Israel, after which they were told they would be allowed to farm the western portion of their land. In recent years, however, the villagers have been threatened by settlers from Itamar, who came and swam in their water supply.

The villagers are not defeated and refuse to be intimidated. In defiance of the army’s destruction of their homes, the people of Tana intend to go back to their land, rebuild their homes and continue farming. International and Israeli activists will support this action, some staying in the village overnight.

July 28th – Asira
Action to open road to farm land

As in Salem, the people of Asira are prevented from farming even their land that has not been stolen by the occupation.

The road from the village to the land has been blocked by the Israeli army with an earth mound. Five families live outside of this block and are unable to reach their homes by vehicle. Israeli army jeeps regularly patrol the area and prevent people from accessing their land.

We will move the mound to open the road for the isolated families.

Israeli activists welcome

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Staying Arrested Together

INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT — Three international activists are refusing to sign release papers after being arrested alongside a Palestinian protester. The arrests occurred during a nonviolent action against the Illegal barrier in the West Bank village of Bil’in. The three women, one Danish and two U.S. citizens, say they won’t accept conditional releases so long as the Palestinian they were arrested with is not offered the same treatment. The three go before a civil judge Thursday July 21. The Palestinian awaits a military trial.

The arrestees were among a group of Palestinians, internationals and Israelis at a nonviolent action against construction of the barrier on Palestinian land.

Alison Brim of North Carolina, Nina Olsen of Denmark, and ISM cofounder Huwaida Arraf, a Palestinian American of Michigan, were taken in front of a judge and offered release with the condition that they stay 500 meters away from the path the wall in Bil’in. Meanwhile, Bil’in resident Tamer Al Khatib was taken to Ofer Military Base where he awaits military trial. In solidarity with their Palestinian friend, the international activists refused. They are being held in Givaat Zeev police station, awaiting a court appointment set for 12 p.m. Thursday at the Peace Court in the Russian Compound.

The four were among seven activists arrested Wednesday morning in Bil’in. Also arrested were Pel’e Minddal of Denmark and Israelis Avi Mugrabhi and Moshe Berger. Minddal signed papers for immediate release in order to get medical treatment for his arm, which was injured amid the arrest. Berger and Mugrabhi also signed for their release.

The protest Wednesday involved several activists. The seven who were arrested had locked themselves inside a large metal cylinder decorated with symbols of the Palestinian political factions and a Palestinian flag which was placed in the path bulldozers use to build the wall on Palestinian land in Bil’in. Only their heads and feet poking out of port holes and they were chained to one another inside.

Israeli soldiers beat them with batons and cut into the cylinder, forcing the activists out.

Interestingly, the arrested activists were charged with attacking the soldiers. The charge was dismissed by a judge Wednesday who had viewed a video tape of the incident and stated that it obviously was the soldiers who had attacked the activists.

Violence, false charges and harassment are not new responses to the nonviolent resistance in Bil’in. Abdallah Abu Rahme and Akram Al Khatib, members of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall have been in detention at Ofer Military Base since their arrest during a non-violent demonstration Friday, July 15. They have a military court appearance scheduled for today at Ofer Military Base.

For more information contact: 054-5892681 or ISM Media Office 02-2971824.

For more photographs:
freckle.blogs.com/photos/strength_in_unity

Non-Violent Organizing Resumes in Salfit

Place: Deir Ballut, Az Zawiya, and Mas’ha in the Salfit District, West Bank
Date: Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Time: 10:00 a.m.

Non-violent Palestinian activists, joined by internationals and Israelis, will hold a one day tour of three villages in the Salfit District which have been severely affected by the construction of the Separation Barrier. Participants in the tour will meet with local residents and learn about the impact of the occupation on daily life in these villages.

The tour will begin at 10:00 a.m. at a partially constructed school in Deir Ballut. The Israeli Army has halted construction on the school since June 2003 and will not allow the village to complete the school, which is funded by World Vision, a project of USAID.

At 11:00 a.m. the tour will proceed to Az Zawiya. Local residents, city council members, Women for Life, and girls from a local summer camp, will meet with the tour participants to discuss effects of the occupation and construction on the Separation Barrier in Az Zawiya and neighboring villages.

At 2:30 tour participants will visit the house of Hani Aamer in Mas’ha. Since the completion of the Wall in Mas’ha two years ago, the Aamer house has been surrounded by the Wall on all four sides. The family may only enter and leave when soldiers open the gates.

Together

By Mansour

It is a very hot day today… in fact the last two months have been very hot here in Palestine, yet we continue to have a strong desire to resist the Occupation, especially the Annexation Wall. Every day that we have a nonviolent demonstration or action the sweat of Palestinians, internationals, and Israeli activists proves the reality of solidarity and the possibility of coexistence between people.

Force is not the language for peace. Unlike the coalition forces who claim to create democracy and global justice through their weapons and destructive technology, in Palestine, simple human beings with empty hands and full hearts face one of the strongest armies in the world, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF). We won’t react towards the IOF by using the same means of violence that they use against us.

We are not teachers or lecturers, but we have the experience of 57 years of resisting the Israeli Occupation. By our continuous resistance and the hope we have maintained, we prove that force and violence is the weapon of the loser. We need you, our friends, side by side with us to work for that peace. We await you in Palestine.

Click here to join the Freedom Summer 2005 Campaign!

ACTION ALERT: Palestinian Gandhi Re-arrested

The Palestinian Gandhi, Abdullah Abu Rahme, and Akram Al Khatib, two members of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Bil’in, were arrested Friday, July 15, 2005 and are still being held at Ofer Military Base. The two were arrested during a non-violent demonstration against the Annexation Barrier in Bil’in and are being charged with assaulting a police officer.

Attorney Tamar Peleg, has filed a request with the court and the prosecutors for the immediate release of Abdullah and Akram. Peleg states that their arrest is the result of Israeli military efforts to stop legitimate, legal, non-violent political activities.

Members of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements and their families have regularly been subjected to nightly threats, harassment, arrest, and false charges in the past.

The central theme of Friday’s demonstration was that peace requires bridges, not walls, and that instead of building the Annexation Wall a better future and a bridge of peace and understanding should be constructed.

Abdullah, along with Israeli and International activists, was inside the installation with only his head sticking out. The activists inside the installation lead the march which left the center of the village toward the construction site of the Barrier. Border police and IDF soldiers were waiting for the demonstration inside the village and prevented access to the route of the Barrier which appropriates more than half of the village’s lands for the construction of new Israeli settlements.

After a few moments of debate, soldiers attacked the demonstrators with clubs, shock grenades and tear gas. Abdullah was forced out of the installation, arrested and then charged with assault. Akram who was standing nearby was suddenly grabbed by a soldier and arrested and charged with resisting arrest. Throughout the arrest which is documented by video and still photos Akram can be seen holding his hands in the air. 14 Israelis and four international activists were also arrested in the same demonstration, under the same circumstances. All but two of them were released after a few hours. The other two were released at 22:00 that night. (Video footage that proves the above is available and has been submitted to the police).

The village of Bil’in is well known for its determination and creativity in resisting the Wall. One month ago, Abdullah and his brother Rateb were arrested in identical circumstances and charged with throwing stones. Luckily, video footage which proved the charges to be false was available. In a rare move, the military judge Captain Daniel Zamir, after viewing video footage of the Bil’in demonstration that conflicted with the IDF soldier reports of the events, stated: “There was no reason for the defendant’s arrest; there was no reason for the shooting that wounded him or the blows he received from the soldier,” adding that the reality was “strangely different, to put it mildly, from the testimony of the prosecution witnesses.” Subsequently, one of the soldiers who testified against Rateb has been investigated by military police and confessed to giving false testimony.

Links to photographs from the demonstration:

Abdullah in the bridge installation, 4th from the left:
freckle.blogs.com/photos/bridges_not_walls/2.html

Image of the confrontation with the IDF:
freckle.blogs.com/photos/bridges_not_walls/5.html

Image of Akram’s arrest:
freckle.blogs.com/photos/bridges_not_walls/arrest4.html

Image of Abdullah’s arrest:
freckle.blogs.com/photos/bridges_not_walls/arrest5.html

Please call and fax the people bellow demanding Abdullah’s and Akram’s release:
From abroad, include also the Israeli embassy in your country.
for embassy email addresses:
www.embassyworld.com/embassy/israel1.html + more on:
www.embassyworld.com/embassy/israel2.html

American Consulate, Jerusalem Email: keenme@state.gov, Fax: +972-(0)2- 627-7230
European Union, Jerusalem, Email mailto@delwbg.cec.eu.int, Fax: +972- (0)2-532 6249

White House Comment Line: 202-456-1111
State Department Bureau of Public Affairs Comment Line: 202-647-6575

Tzipi Livni
Ministry of Justice
29 Salah al-Din Street
Jerusalem 91010, Israel
Fax: +972 2 628 7757
E-mail: sar@justice.gov.il

Menahem Mazuz
Attorney-General/Legal
Advisor to the Government
Ministry of Justice
29 Salah al-Din Street
Jerusalem 91010, Israel
Fax: +972 2 628 5438
+972 2 627 4481

Brigadier General Avihai Mandelblit
Chief Military Attorney
6 David Elazar Street
Hakirya
Tel Aviv
Israel
Fax: +972 3 569 4370
E-mail: c/o arbel@mail.idf.il