Category: Reports

Al Ma’asara demonstrates the meaning of peace

by Ramon Garcia

9 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

The people of Al Ma’sara gathered after praying time to march to their land, confiscated for the nearby illegal settlement. Approximately 70 internationals were present, most of them Christians coming back from a conference in Bethlehem titled, “Christ at the Checkpoints.”

The crowd marched peacefully to the end of the village, where occupation forces were waiting. As they outnumbered the military present, they were able to pass through the soldiers and march towards the land of locals. The marchers advanced peacefully and were stopped when reinforcement arrived.

The crowd stood their ground, facing the army. Slogans against the occupation were chanted, and many demonstrators started talking to the soldiers. “A good way to start building bridges instead of walls,” said one of the activists.

Two participants were detained for a few minutes and then released. The march ended peacefully.

The village lies roughly 10 kilometers west of the 1948 “Green Line” (the only internationally recognized ‘border’ between Israel and Palestine) the massive “Gush Etzion block” of seven Israeli settlements (pop. 60,000) lies nearby, products of Israel’s campaign to produce illegal “facts on the ground.”

These ‘facts,’ in turn are used to justify giving the Israeli military full control of most of the village’s lands and the annexation of thousands of dunums of land via planned Wall construction.

Not only would the wall’s route cut off 3500 dunums of Palestinian lands in Al-Ma’sara and limit access to services in larger communities, but it would also cut off the village’s water access and the primary routes between Hebron, Bethlehem, and Ramallah—three of the largest cities of the West Bank.

Any one of these developments would hit Al Ma’sara and surrounding villages hard, but together they are intolerable and demoralizing. Even though there is no barrier or construction currently underway, some Palestinian farmers have chosen to stay off lands east of the Wall’s projected path, fearful of settler and military attacks.

Ramon Garcia is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Bruqin: International Women’s Day Demonstration for Hana Shalabi

by Jeff
8 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
 
Yesterday, several hundred people traveled from around the West Bank to the village of Bruqin to mark the occasion of International Women’s Day and protest against Israel’s continued imprisonment and confinement of hunger striker Hana Shalabi.

Bruqin is Shalabi’s home village, and the demonstration centered around the Shalabi family home. The demonstration was organized by the Union of Palestinian Women Committees and representatives from the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society and political parties ranging from Islamic Jihad to the DFLP were present.

Hana Shalabi was arrested February 16 and is currently imprisoned under the illegal Israeli practice of administrative detention. She has not been informed of a charge against her, given neither a trial no a sentence, nor has been allowed to see the evidence against her. Shalabi was released from a previous two year long administrative detention term last year as part of the Gilad Shalit deal.

She has refused food for the last 22 days, and has vowed to continue her hunger strike until her release.

Jeff is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Al Walaja: Tunneling to get home

by Ramon Garcia

8 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Sherinne Alaraj of the local Popular Committee stands at the site of the tunnel

 

Some Palestinians and Internationals gathered in the village of Al Walajeh on International Women’s Day to show solidarity to Omar and his family, especially his wife ,whose health has suffered from Israeli occupation in the small village.

Sherinne Alaraj of the local Popular Committee explained to internationals the circumstances of the family. Over a dozen individuals toured with her, learning of the family’s forced separation from their village.

The Apartheid Wall under construction in the village will leave the home of Omar and his family on the “wrong” side and separate it from the rest of the village. The Israeli military has thus constructed a “private” tunnel for the family to use in order to access their home from the village.  This tunnel is being dug up at the moment, and due to the heavy rains of last week, the family home was severely flooded.

The house sits behind the dirt dug to extend the segregation barrier

This is the price the family has to pay for having refused to leave their house. When the wall is finished, they will be surrounded by 4 electric fences.

The constant harassment from the occupation forces and the construction of the wall seriously affected the health of a woman residing in the house. She had a nervous breakdown, and the stress made her lose her sight for 3 months. When asked what her biggest fear was, she responded, “The kind of men my children will grow up to be in these circumstances.”

Occupation forces and police were present, telling us we were not allowed to assemble at the home. As Al Walajeh is officially part of Jerusalem, military law does not apply here. The situation of the village is quite special, as the land was annexed to Jerusalem, but not the people, who are therefore considered as “present absentees”, staying illegally in their own houses.

Two weeks ago, 14 demolition orders were handed out, and the village counts at least 100 in total.

Ramon Garcia is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Women’s day demonstration in Qalandia for the rights of female Palestinian prisoners

by Satu

8 March 2012  | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank 

On International Women’s day, March 8th,  hundreds of demonstrators rallied in Qalandia in solidarity with hunger striker Hana Shalabi and calling for Israel to end the occupation.

The demonstrators marched marched down the street next to the separation wall to Qalandia checkpoint, carrying placards and chanting slogans . In the crowd empowered women were carrying Palestinian flags and placards saying “Women break barriers,” “Raise your voices against all oppression,” and “Feminist resistance against the occupation.”

Close to the checkpoint the non-violent demonstrators were greeted by the Israeli army with sound bombs and skunk water before trying to disperse the crowd by excessive use of  the American made LRAD device, “The Scream,” which projects a high pitched siren that can cause dizziness and disorientation. Finally tear gas was canisters were fired at demonstrators.

Currently seven palestinian women are detained in Israel including Hana Shalabi, who is being detained without a charge or trial and has been on hunger strike since 16 February.

Satu is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Israeli flags hanged in Yanoun are a reminder of Itamar settler violence

by Ramon Garcia

7 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

 The illegal settlement of Itamar, constructed illegally on the land of Aqraba,  Awarta,  and Beit Furik, has taken a provocative step of incitement in the village of Yanoun, from which Zionists have also stolen land. On 7 March 2o12 illegal  settlers entered the village of Yanoun and rose the flag of Israel over the home of village elder Abu Muhmad al Ajoori, who resides in the lower part of the village. Another flag was suspended over a water reservoir in the upper part of the village. The settlers were then seen by locals, wandering off into the hills.

Yousef Deria, a local activist against the wall and settlements, said locals contacted him following the incident, avoiding any conflict with the settlers who tend to have violent tendencies against Palestinians through their declared “Price Tag Campaign” which violently targets Palestinian villagers.

Deria was accompanied by peace activists and locals as they removed these flags.

Residents of Yanoun have suffered many years of terrifying violence at the hands of Itamar settlers – the murder of villagers, slaughter of their livestock, desecration of crops, property destruction and daily invasions and intimidation by armed settlers. The increasing brutality climaxed in 2002, as settlers rampaged the village, cutting down over 1000 olive trees, killing dozens of sheep, beating Palestinians in their homes with rifle butts, and gouging out one man’s eye.  Unable to stand the fear – and indeed reality – of terrorism any longer, the entire village evacuated at the time, mostly families fleeing to the nearby village of Aqraba.

An international and Israeli activist campaign was launched immediately to allow the residents of Yanoun to return to their lands. A permanent international presence was established in the village by EAPPI which has assisted in encouraging people of Yanoun to return home, and has remained instrumental in what little peace of mind the people of Yanoun have salvaged since they were uprooted from their land. One by one, they boldly returned.

Over the 2002-06 period the entirety of the village’s families eventually came back to their homes and attempted to start their life  in the shadow of Itamar’s ever-increasing outposts that dot the hills surrounding the village.  Approximately 100 people remain in the village – 40 in “lower Yanoun” in the valley, and 60 in “upper Yanoun”, whose houses ascend the hill to where just a few hundred meters away lie dozens of settlement houses and agricultural complexes.

Although the entire village is located in Area C – under full Israeli civilian and military control – and stands at risk of being slated for demolition, residents believe that the settlement’s – and Israeli government’s – strategy is what may already be underway – a gradual exodus of families and individuals as they are confined to an ever-shrinking amount of land, engulfed by the expanding settlement and its violent inhabitants.

There are some who remain though, who are determined to stay – many families steadfastly refusing to relinquish the connection to the land that is rightfully theirs. The very existence of Yanoun today bespeaks its fighting spirit, one that will hopefully continue despite the collective punishment waged on the village.