Category: Reports

Nabi Saleh consumed with raids while fasting

9 August 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Following the unusually short demonstration on the first Friday of Ramadan, the Israeli army raided the village of Nabi Saleh just before Iftar, the Muslim time for breaking fast during Ramadan, resulting in the detaining of a 14 year old boy for approximately two hours and an excessive amount of tear gas in the village.

These raids continued to happen on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, again 45 minutes before Iftar, while locals prepared to break their day long fasts. On the Sunday invasion 3 jeeps with a group of soldiers started shooting teargas without discretion, even reaching within the homes through open windows.

Manal Tamimi’s child was sleeping in the living room alone where he inhaled a large amount of tear gas for half an hour resulting in him vomiting for over an hour while the army was still in the village. Tamimi states in an interview with ISM that she was scared of the thought that she may have been outside of her home, visiting her mother, and no one would have heard the scream of her child.

Without her presence at home, she says, this invasion may have ended with a fatality within her family.

At the same time her brother, Rami Tamimi, was standing under an olive tree while the soldiers started shooting multiple rounds of rubber coated steel bullets, resulting in a broken finger and a broken arm. According to the villagers of Nabi Saleh, on Monday a large number of Israeli soldiers invaded the village firing tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets randomly at the houses.

The Popular Committee  of the village states that in any case their struggle for justice and human rights will not be stopped by the repression of an army which has violently tried to suppress any form of public advocacy and peaceful resistance.

Ni’lin continues with strong will despite Israeli raids

8 August 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank  and Ni’lin Sons Group

On the 7th of August at 2:30am, 13 military jeeps entered the village of Ni’lin, took control of its southern region, and proceeded towards the nearby village of Qibya to arrest a Palestinian following an aggressive raid the previous night. Locals curious about the raid  have yet to ascertain why the man was arrested.

This comes following an incitement to escalate tension by the Israeli military in a raid the previous night at 11:20 pm, when two military jeeps raided the town of Ni’lin from the opposite side of the illegal Israeli separation wall through the adjacent fields, and began firing loud flares into the air, resulting in brush fires across these fields.

“The two military jeeps continued their commute until they reached our houses, and raided the house of Ilayan Mousa and started searching the house in an investigation of Mousa. They left the house after half an hour and no one was arrested. They moved from Mousa’s home to the rest of the village, raiding it and stopping in the middle to shoot tear gas grenades at the people and surrounding homes in the streets,” said one local, Saeed, who lives near the Israeli separation barrier that has been the focus of Ni’lin and other village advocacy campaigns and forms of peaceful resistance.

“The wall encloses Palestinians to limit travel, usurps Palestinian land, is a tool for illegal, Israeli occupation, and is a demeaning symbolic and physical injustice to the definition of freedom,” said an international observer from the United States.

One man was hit in the leg with a tear gas bomb and dozens suffered from tear gas inhalation.

The military jeeps left the town yet a group of approximately 45 Israeli soldier raided the fields near the houses and started shooting tear gas bombs and flare bombs, and stayed there until 02:00 am.

According to locals Israel has raided the village of Ni’lin at least four times a month in the past six months. Locals claim the purpose of the military invasions is clear, harassment with various weaponry and constant investigations and interrogations are two of many variables to incite fear in the villages that peaceful resist illegal Israeli occupation . But the ploy of fear tactics is futile, according to Saeed.

“We never get scared or stop protesting. We are continuing our struggle with a strong will and determination.”

No signs of ceasing resistance in Ni’lin

6 August 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On Friday, 5 August, the weekly demonstration against the illegal settlement near the Palestinian village of Ni’lin was held, despite the majority of its participants fasting for Ramadan. Although smaller than is usual it consisted of about forty people from the local community and a group of internationals from ISM and the Christian Peacemakers Team, some Israeli activists, and the Jordan Valley Solidarity Group.
The march succeeded in reaching the gate of the illegal annexation wall. Stopping in front of the huge metal construction, delegates from the Popular Committee of the village voiced their grievances and re-asserted their rights under international law to self determination and to live free of the harassment caused by Israeli encroachment on their land. A tire was set on fire as a symbolic act.
A group of young men went off to partake in their form of resistance by launching small stones over the wall, about 500m to the right of the gate. The military police retaliated with volleys of tear gas in a standoff that lasted around forty minutes. No one was seriously injured, and only one individual was treated for gas inhalation by attending members of the Red Cresent.
Afterwards, Saeed, a son of a prominent member of the local Popular Committee, commented on the relatively low level of repression experienced during this particular demonstration.
“Between, 2008 and 2010, the military arrested 90 people from this village. We had snipers in the village, shooting people and they used special, illegal bullets called ‘0.22’. They explode inside your body. We had 5 people killed,” he said.
Despite this history of aggression, the local commuity shows no signs of capitulation and is determined to fight for their human rights, sanctified and upheld by international law.

Ramadan in the Buffer Zone

2 August 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza

The buffer zone is a place of death.  300 meters of destroyed land, land that used to be alive, that used to be filled with orchards, houses, and fields, now, all dead.  To enter the buffer zone is to risk your life, even to come close to it, the Israeli’s shoot farmers, shepherds, scrap collectors, anyone who comes close to the buffer zone is in danger.  Every Tuesday, the people of Beit Hanoun attempt to bring the buffer zone back to life.  They gather at the Agricultural College and march to the buffer zone.

Ramadan began on Monday, in honor of Ramadan, this week’s demonstration would involve going to the buffer zone to pray.  We gathered, about thirty of us, under the hot sun.  Thankfully, a breeze was blowing.  It is summer in Gaza, and Ramadan is particularly hard this year, it isn’t easy to march under the hot sun while you are fasting.  We walked to the buffer zone, newly bulldozed by the Israeli’s; our flag planted merely a week before, gone.  The men laid down a white cloth, held it down with clumps of dirt, spread prayer rugs, and Abu Issa recited the call the call to prayer.  It echoed over the buffer zone, joining the symphony of calls from Beit Hanoun.  As the men prayed we looked around nervously, today was quieter than usual; maybe because of Ramadan there was none of the usual background noise of construction to repair previous Israeli destruction.  After finishing prayers, we marched back to Beit Hanoun, at least for a little while, the buffer zone had been returned to life.  For a short while, something lived in it, people prayed in it, may justice come soon.

Music guides peaceful resistance in Kufr Qaddoum

1 August 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On Friday July 29, 2011 the Popular Committee of Kufr Qaddoum included musical guests from the Netherlands, Fanfare, to play for Kufr Qaddoum’s weekly demonstration against a roadblock that closes off the main road to the village. The demonstration began  around 1:30pm after Friday morning prayer. Dressed in an array of bright colors the band greeted young and old men exiting the mosque. As everyone gathered, they began playing, which created a positive energy throughout the gathering demonstrators. The excitement grew as the protesters began marching down the road. The band started playing “Wayn `A Ramallah,” causing everyone to sign along.

As everyone marched members of the Popular Committee tried to keep the band in front while the young men followed behind them. Earlier that morning they had decided that it would be safest for the band to be in front in case the soldiers fired tear gas. This was mostly successful, but at one point approximately 20-30 Palestinian demonstrators had gathered in front of the band. When marchers reached the final point, the band stood towards the front with Palestinian demonstrators dispersed among them filming and taking pictures.

Fanfare continued to play when everyone arrived at the barbed wire fence. Twenty soldiers gathered with several tear-gas guns and a Jeep stood behind them with a raised Israeli flag. After about seven minutes of music, a couple of Palestinians took hold of the loudspeaker to express their demands. Several soldiers stood behind the press that had gathered. Unlike the demonstration on July 22nd, the demonstrators stood about 200 meters away from the soldiers. Earlier Popular Committee had decided that it was best to keep a distance. But when a handful of Palestinians marched about 50 meters forward towards the soldiers, the Israeli military began firing tear gas into the crowd. As everyone started to run many more tear gas canisters were fired towards the back. Many people ran off the road and down the hill to avoid the gas, but the soldiers fired tear gas in their direction as well.

Approximately thirty five people were treated taken to the hospital to be treated for inhaling tear gas. One American activist was hit in the shoulder by a tear gas canister. An older Palestinian man was treated for head and face injuries by Red Crescent volunteers in the village.  He was bleeding from his head and the bridge of his nose, but the specific cause of his injuries are unknown.

The illegal settlement of Qadumim occupies Palestinian land next to Kufr Qaddoum. Over the past month, the people of Kufr Qaddoum have organized weekly demonstrations against the barrier that blocks the main road to their village. Every week the Kufr Qaddoum Popular Committee provides the Israeli occupiers papers issued by the Israeli court to lift the barrier that closes off the main road to their village.