23 December 2010 | International Solidarity Movement
Tuesday, Israeli authorities demolished a Palestinian home in Ras al Ahmud, East Jerusalem. ISM activists interviewed family members left homeless by the senseless demolition.
On December 19, 2010, Israeli soldiers entered the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras al Ahmud and left a demolition notice on the window of a Palestinian home. The families inside were faced with a wrenching decision: demolish their own home and pay a fine of 60,000 shekels or refuse and watch as soldiers demolish their house and punish them with a fine of 120,000 shekels. Soldiers showed up outside with a bulldozer. Finally, on December 21, they tore down their own house.
“It felt so bad to take the house down. To even think for one minute that we wouldn’t have a home – what do you do? My father bought this land over 40 years ago,” explained Rami.
Three families lived in the house, a total of 13 people, including 4 small children.
The Red Cross donated tents and some supplies to the family. Later, a representative from the UN visited the site.
\On Thursday, the families were living in two white tents and a makeshift shelter. Two days had passed since the demolition. A heap of metal and the frame of the roof lay on the dusty ground where their house once stood. Off to one side, stacks of their possessions were exposed to the elements – boxes of clothes, drinking glasses, a refrigerator. Some doors and wood paneling were leaning against a fence.
“A big problem now is the bathroom,” said Rami, “We don’t know how we will pay the 60,000 shekels. We are sleeping here in these tents and we don’t have anywhere else to go.”
Just this week in East Jerusalem, demolitions in Nu’man Village, Sur Baher, and Ath Thuri have left 11 other Palestinians homeless.
Please join the people of Al-Walaja for their weekly demonstration this Friday morning: December 24, 2010 at 9 a.m.
A resident of al-Walaja is attacked with pepper spray for confronting Israeli bulldozers.
Despite an ongoing trial in the Israeli high court over the legality of the placement of the Separation wall in al-Walaja, a small village just outside of Jerusalem, Israel doubled construction efforts this afternoon. Around 2pm bulldozers accompanied by armed guards started clearing trees, rocks, and shrubs. Three days ago, Israeli authorities marked the wall route with orange plastic straps which including a route which will swallow a natural spring and a Palestinian grave yard. Last August, a group of villagers, members of the Israeli nature preservation society and even settlers brought a case before the Israeli high court demanding that the route of the wall be changed. The court said that it would take time to deliberate the case and deliver a final verdict in January. The court, however, did not issue a stop work order on construction of the wall. Israeli authorities are now taking advantage of this loophole by doubling work on the construction of the wall in order to create facts on the ground.
This afternoon, villagers and international supporters walked towards the active bulldozers and tried to stop their work non-violently. They were prevented from reaching the bulldozers by armed Israeli soldiers, border police, and riot police. Despite the violent show of force, villagers argued that Israel had no right to destroy their land and cited the ongoing High Court legal case. At one point, an IDF commander recognized Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh from an earlier demonstration which took place in the summer. Qumsiyeh was standing in a group of people when he was suddenly arrested without the slightest warning or provocation. The army then started to violently push the crowd into the village, causing several villagers to fall on the rocky, uneven ground and sustain minor injuries. As the outnumbered villagers were being pushed further and further away from the construction zone, a commander suddenly ran into the crowd and randomly detained several Palestinians who – at that point – had their backs turned to the soldiers and were facing towards the village.
In total, eight Palestinians – one woman and seven men including teenagers and an elderly men, were detained. Three were handcuffed; five were bound with plastic zip ties which resulted in minor injuries due to the tightness of the plastic. Three of those detained continued to take abuse from the soldiers even after their arrest.
Background
Al-Walaja is an agrarian village of about 2,000 people, located south of Jerusalem and West of Bethlehem. Following the 1967 Occupation of the West Bank and the redrawing of the Jerusalem municipal boundaries, roughly half the village was annexed by Israel and included in the Jerusalem municipal area. The village’s residents, however did not receive Israeli residency or citizenship, and are considered illegal in their own homes.
Once completed, the path of the Wall is designed to encircle the village’s built-up area entirely, separating the residents from both Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and almost all their lands – roughly 5,000 dunams. Previously, Israeli authorities have already confiscated approximately half of the village’s lands for the building of the Har Gilo and Gilo settlements, and closed off areas to the south and west of it. The town’s inhabitants have also experienced the cutting down of fruit orchards and house demolition due to the absence of building permits in Area C.
According to a military confiscation order handed to the villagers, the path of the Wall will stretch over 4890 meters between Beit Jala and al-Wallaja, affecting 35 families, whose homes may be slated for demolition.
Beit Jala is a predominantly Christian town located 10 km south of Jerusalem, on the western side of the Hebron road, opposite Bethlehem. Once completed, the Wall will Isolate 3,200 Dunams of the town’s lands, including almost 3,000 Dunams of olive groves and the only recreational forest in the area, the Cremisan monastery and the Cremisan Cellars winery.
On Saturday, December 18th, 2010, a larger than usual number of Israeli and international activists joined Beit Ommar villagers in their demonstration against the continuing encroachment of Karmei Tsur settlers on land belonging to local farmers. Approximately 80 people took part in the high-spirited demonstration, which was accompanied by a group of Israeli drummers. Demonstrators also waved the flags of the various countries that have recognized Palestine’s right to self-determination in the last few weeks.
As the demonstration was starting, a group of ten Israeli soldiers occupied the house of a local family at the southern edge of the village. The terrified family of five was forced into a separate room while the soldiers used their house as a vantage point from which to observe the demonstrators. The soldiers remained in the residence for a total of three hours.
As the protesters approached the fence around the settlement of Karmei Tsur, they were confronted by an additional group of Israeli soldiers and border police. Soldiers repressed the unarmed demonstration with tear gas and stun bomb. One soldier injured themselves while trying to throw a sound bomb. Several high-velocity tear gas canisters, deemed illegal by the Israeli military’s own protocol, were fired at the heads of the demonstrators. One Italian international and one Israeli solidarity activist were arrested by Israeli Forces.
17 December 2010 | International Solidarity Movement
Shebab injured by teargas projectile Friday, at the weekly demonstration held in the village of An Nabi Saleh, a young Palestinian was shot by a tear gas canister in the back of his head. Falling down, he was further injured on the front of his head.
The military continued to shoot tear gas into the area, without regard for the people coming to help the young unconscious man. It took over 45 minutes before an ambulance arrived, as the army stopped it and prevented them from entering the village. By the time the ambulance arrived, the injured man had regained consciousness. Leaving the village, the ambulance was stopped twice more. The man is now being treated at the hospital in Ramallah.
For one year the people of Nabi Saleh have been protesting the occupation, the illegal settlement, and massive land confiscations from their village. In response to village youth confronting the soldiers, each week the Israeli army shoots tear gas into the village and closes the checkpoint for several hours.
This Friday at 11 o’clock, 6 jeeps entered the village, bringing many soldiers into the village. After midday prayer the protest began with villagers walking down the main road through the village. Demonstrators attempted to cross the street to reach the spring located on village land but occupied by the settlers of Halamish. The villagers have been denied access to this spring for many years, which had traditionally served as a water source for the two neighboring Palestinian villages.
The soldiers began throwing sound bombs between demonstrators, and the demo split up: Israeli and international activists stayed close to the army, and the shebabs engaged in a confrontation with soldiers in the village.
At one point a media team interviewed the commander of the army troops. When an Israeli activist asked them to interview someone from the Palestinian side, they refused.
The teargassing continued until after sunset, when it was no longer light enough to see anything. One year after the first demonstration in Nabi Salah, the Israeli army still responds to their non-violent resistance with excessive force, making it the most violent and dangerous protest in the whole west bank.
16 December 2010 | International Solidarity Movement
Today in Jerusalem, the Daoudi family appeared at their first court hearing to defend themselves against forced eviction. The Daoudis live in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Palestinian East Jerusalem where Israeli settlers are seeking to illegally evict and displace Palestinian residents from their homes. According to the UN, of the approximately 2,800 Palestinian residents in Sheikh Jarrah, more than 60 have lost their homes and 500 are at risk of forced eviction.
Earlier this year on April 6, the Nahalat Shimon Company filed civil eviction proceedings to force the Daoudi family from their home. The Daoudis have lived in their home in Sheikh Jarrah since 1956, when the land was a Jordanian refugee camp for Palestinians. The family was displaced from West Jerusalem, and came to East Jerusalem as refugees.
Today, 15 supporters packed the courtroom before officials refused to allow any more to enter. Additional supporters waited outside. ISM and EAPPI members were in attendance.
The two sides did not discuss any of the substantive issues today. The Daoudi’s lawyers requested 60 days to present questionnaires and request documents.
A date for the next hearing has not been set, but an announcement is expected within the next couple days.
Tuesday, Israeli authorities demolished a Palestinian home in Ras al Ahmud, East Jerusalem. ISM activists interviewed family members left homeless by the senseless demolition.
