Demonstrators begin marching in An Nabi SalehThis past Friday, May 14, the town of An Nabi Saleh held its weekly demonstration. Overly aggressive Israeli military tactics started a colossal brushfire, which reaped viable farmland. The weekly demonstration confronts the illegal expansion of Halamish settlement onto village land. Great local support brought out over 100 Palestinians, Israelis and Internationals.
The overwhelming drive and enthusiasm for justice rang through megaphones as chants and arms raised in pride as the demonstration moved down the valley. Israeli soldiers began to move forward from highway 465, and the peaceful demonstration soon got pushed back into the village as the Israeli military surrounded it on three sides. The use of excessive amounts of tear gas, percussion grenades, and rubber-coated steel bullets pushed villagers into a dangerously blind situation. Tear gas fired illegally from An Nabi Saleh’s hilltop ridge downhill was aimed directly at village demonstrators. Small brush fires started by tear gas canisters were fanned by the wind and engulfed the land in a massive brushfire.
As villagers retreated, soldiers chased demonstrators with tied attack dogs. Nobody was caught or injured from this unusually violent tactic. Tear gas rained down into the narrow streets of An Nabi Saleh, smoking out residents, causing great amounts of gas inhalation and setting fire to the private plots of local land owners. After many hours of holding back the Israeli military from invading the village, burnt fields smoldered and soldiers retreated while villagers dispersed with heads held high.
Tear gas canisters caused extensive brushfires in An Nabi SalehTwo Israeli activists were detained during the demonstration, one of whom was dragged down the road and then beaten in the police car while in custody.
The hilltop village of An Nabi Saleh has a population of approximately 500 residents and is located 30 kilometers northeast of Ramallah along highway 465. Today and every Friday since January 2010, around 100 un-armed demonstrators leave the village center in an attempt to reach a spring which borders land confiscated by Israeli settlers. The District Coordination Office has confirmed the spring is on Palestinian land, but nearly a kilometer before reaching the spring, the demonstration is routinely met with dozens of soldiers armed with M16 assault rifles, tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and percussion grenades.
The demonstrations protest Israel’s apartheid, which has manifested itself in An Nabi Saleh through land confiscation. The illegal Halamish (Neve Zuf) settlement, located opposite An Nabi Saleh, has illegally seized nearly of half of the village’s valuable agricultural land. In January 2010, hundreds of the village residents’ olive trees were uprooted by settlers. Conflict between the settlement and villagers reawakened due to the settlers’ attempt to re-annex An Nabi Saleh land despite an Israeli court decision in December 2009 that awarded the property rights of the land to An Nabi Saleh residents. The confiscated land of An Nabi Saleh is located on the Hallamish side of Highway 465 and is just one of many expansions of the illegal settlement since its establishment in 1977.
Today fifty demonstrators from Iraq Burin, together with international activists, marched in commemoration of the Nakba’s 62nd anniversary, and to protest to the illegal Israeli occupation of the village’s lands. Israeli occupation forces enacted their policy of violent “crowd dispersal” techniques in an effort to thwart the protest, proving no match for the village’s spirit of resistance.
The demonstration commenced at Iraq Burin’s southern tip, the assembled Palestinian and international protesters holding 62 black balloons to the sky in memory of the 62 years of Israeli occupation that has passed since al-Nakba (“the catastrophe”) that saw the ethnic cleansing of over 500 Palestinian villages and the founding of the Israeli state in 1948. Facing the illegal Israeli settlement of Bracha, whose residents have executed countless attacks on the residents of Iraq Burin, the demonstration set off.
Weaving a haphazard route through the valley that carves a line between Iraq Burin village and her farmland, the demonstration began its ascent of the mountain deemed off-limits by the Israeli military. For local protesters, reaching these lands represented far more than the sum of its parts – the assertion of the right to exist on their land, and the right to defend those same lands from the usurping forces of a foreign state. Further up the mountain the demonstrators forged, at each moment expecting to be met with the dull thud of sound grenades and the smoke of gas canisters propelled from the end of a soldier’s M-16 – yet pushing ahead nonetheless.
The victory of reaching the mountain’s summit – a first for the demonstration, and many of its individuals – was significant. The crowd drew to a halt 20 meters from where some 15 Israeli occupation forces were waiting and, continuing to chant and wave flags, protesters stood their ground on the soil that is rightfully theirs, but has become all but impossible to access. The first rounds of tear gas were soon fired by soldiers, causing the demonstration to spread out across the mountain. Residents observing from their vantage points in the village served as the protesters’ eyes and ears amidst the confusion, calling across the valley to alert demonstrators to the soldiers’ movements.
An additional force of soldiers soon descended to the valley, aiming to encircle and isolate the protesters on the slopes of the mountain. Most protesters managed to reach the other side of the valley before the occupation forces began firing off rounds of gas in to the village. As the young men of Iraq Burin rushed forward once again to defend their lands, the soldiers were driven back, to the calls of victory of the protesters that echoed out through the hills.
Locals cheering on the exit of Israeli soldiers from their land
It was last year that the people of Iraq Burin began gathering to defend their village each Saturday due to the violent attacks instigated by settlers of Bracha each week, during the Jewish holiday of Shabbat. Now, with the village’s pro-active – and non-violent – resistance to the aggression, no settlers have been sighted on the land of Iraq Burin for over four Saturdays now. The result is clear evidence of popular resistance in action, and what successes it can achieve in Palestinian communities living under occupation.
Wadi Rahhal held its first demonstration FridayToday, Friday 14th May, the small farming village of Wadi Rahhal, just south of Bethlehem, held its first demonstration against the theft of its lands by the massive Israeli colony/settlement of Efrat. In particular, the villagers were objecting to the planned encroachment of the apartheid wall to within 30 metres of the village school. Regular incursions by armed settlers and Israeli troops have not previously brought forth this kind of response from the village.
It is in this central region that the cancerous growth of settlements is most noticeable. Lands annexed to various settlements have come close to splitting the West Bank in two, making a future, contiguous Palestinian state an impossibility. The Wall, both built and planned, completely ignores the “Green Line”, the previously accepted eastern border of the Israeli state.
Today’s demonstration was organised by the National Committee of Wadi Rahhal and is intended to become a regular event. It was supported by villagers from nearby Beit Ummar, together with a small group of Israeli activists and Australian, Canadian and United States supporters from the International Solidarity Movement and the Palestine Solidarity project. A notable feature was the number of school children marching alongside their elders.
Non-violent demonstrators were met with heavily-armed Israeli soldersThe well-organised group of 70 to 80 demonstrators marched to within metres of Efrat’s present boundary, where they were met by a heavily-armed squad of Israeli Occupation Force soldiers. Leaders of the protest spoke in Arabic and Hebrew, announcing the peaceful and non-violent nature of the demonstration and appealing to the troops not to initiate a violent response. An international activist, speaking on behalf of the ISM, PSP and Israeli supporters present, affirmed their solidarity with the Palestinian people, who have endured 43 years of military occupation and called for three cheers for a Free Palestine. The demonstrators then dispersed, with no casualties suffered, ending a successful, peaceful and non-violent demonstration.
* “Mabrouk” is an Arabic term, meaning “Congratulations”.
Between 1 and 6 a.m. Thursday morning, 10 boys under the ago of eighteen were arrested from their homes in the village of Hares, Salift region. The boys, entirely innocent, were taken to Huwarra detention center where they are now being held. A massive number of soldiers were involved in the raid. They arrived in the village in three large “Man’ trucks, three smaller trucks and several army jeeps.
Earlier in the week, soldiers built a gate at the entrance to Hares. If closed, the gate traps many villages inside. The captain of Shabak in the area, new, told villagers that the gate was “punishment”, and that the arrests were further “punishment”. No reason or justification for “punishing” the village, particularly by arresting children, was furnished.
Settlers, Palestinians in the street of Sheikh Jarrah
Hundreds of settlers held disruptive celebrations in the Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah yesterday in honor of “Jerusalem Day”. Dancing, screaming and praying in the street, the settlers disrupted life for over six hours, as police barricades and teeming masses prevented traffic from flowing as usual. One Palestinian woman was violently assaulted in the afternoon, resulting in a gash across her face and a broken nose. Palestinian residents observing from their homes and/or sidewalk were subjected to the extremely racist harassment which is consistent with any settler activity.
Palestinians, Israelis and internationals staging a small counter-demonstration were forced by police out of the street and onto the sidewalk. This restriction on freedom of speech came shortly after massive crowds of settlers effectively closed the street for hours, filling multiple blocks with police-facilitated nationalist celebrations of ethnic cleansing. Four Israeli activists were arrested after a small counter-demonstration held at the entrance to Sheikh Jarrah.
Palestinian women protest racist "Jerusalem Day" outside of occupied Gawi house
“Jerusalem Day” according to the Hebrew calendar, falls 2-3 weeks after the end of the war of 1967 when Jerusalem was “unified”. In reality, this holiday observes the beginning of a systematic ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian would-be capital, East Jerusalem. “Jerusalem Day” is observed with a march through West Jerusalem and the Old City, particularly the Muslim Quarter. In the past few years, the march has taken a very extreme nationalist character, and extreme right messages are celebrated. Last year, there were violent clashes when marchers attacked Palestinians while marching though the Old City and attacked Israeli leftist protestors who held a quiet demonstration near the march.
Contextual background on Sheikh Jarrah
Approximately 475 Palestinian residents living in the Karm Al-Ja’ouni neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, located directly north of the Old City, face imminent eviction from their homes. All 28 families are refugees from 1948, primarily from West Jerusalem and Haifa, whose houses in Sheikh Jarrah were built and given to them through a joint project between the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and the Jordanian government in 1956.
Facing systematic ethnic cleansing through the Israeli judicial system, all 28 families of the neighborhood ultimately await eviction. The violent eviction of theKamel al-Kurd family, by Israeli police and settlers in November of 2008, resulted in the death of ailing Abu Kamel (Mohammad) al Kurd, 61. The August 2009 evictions of the Gawi and Hannoun extended families and December 2009 occupation of Rifqa al Kurd’s front addition followed, beginning a visible trend of ethnic cleansing in Sheikh Jarrah. Over 60 residents, including 20 children, have now been displaced.
The evicted families established protest tents near their homes, many of which were repeatedly demolished by the Jerusalem Municipality. As a result, only the Rifqa al Kurd tent remains standing. Members of the Gawi, Hannoun and Kamel al Kurd families continue a daily presence outside of the occupied Gawi home. The Palestinians and their international and Israeli supporters face continual harassment from Israeli settlers. Police presence in the community is almost entirely directed at prosecuting Palestinians, and not in neutrally protecting residents from harassment and violence.
Constructing new Jewish settlements and/or occupying Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem and the West Bank is illegal under many international laws, including Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The plight of the Gawi, al-Kurd and Hannoun families is just a small part of Israel’s ongoing campaign of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from East Jerusalem, the capital of a hypothetical independent state.
Legal Background
The eviction orders, issued by Israeli courts, are a result of claims made in 1967 by the Sephardic Community Committee and the Knesseth Yisrael Association (who since sold their claim to the area to Nahalat Shimon) – settler organizations whose aim is to take over the whole area using falsified deeds for the land dating back to 1875. In 1972, these two settler organizations applied to have the land registered in their names with the Israel Lands Administration (ILA). Their claim to ownership was noted in the Land Registry; however, it was never made into an official registry of title. The first Palestinian property in the area was taken over at this time.
The case continued in the courts for another 37 years. Amongst other developments, the first lawyer of the Palestinian residents reached an agreement with the settler organizations in 1982 (without the knowledge or consent of the Palestinian families) in which he recognized the settlers’ ownership in return for granting the families the legal status of protected tenants. This affected 23 families and served as a basis for future court and eviction orders (including theal -Kurd family house take-over in December 2009), despite the immediate appeal filed by the families’ new lawyer. Furthermore, a Palestinian landowner, Suleiman Darwish Hijazi , has legally challenged the settlers’ claims. In 1994 he presented documents certifying his ownership of the land to the courts, including tax receipts from 1927. In addition, the new lawyer of the Palestinian residents located a document, proving the land inSheikh Jarrah had never been under Jewish ownership. The Israeli courts rejected these documents.
The first eviction orders were issued in 1999 based on the (still disputed) agreement from 1982 and, as a result, two Palestinian families (Hannoun and Gawi) were evicted in February 2002. After the 2006 Israeli Supreme Court finding that the settler committees’ ownership of the lands was uncertain, and the Lands Settlement officer of the court requesting that the ILA remove their names from the Lands Registrar, the Palestinian families returned back to their homes. The courts, however, failed to recognize new evidence presented to them and continued to issue eviction orders based on decisions from 1982 and 1999 respectively. Further evictions followed in November 2008 (Kamel al-Kurd family) and August 2009 (Hannoun and Gawi families for the second time). An uninhabited section of a house belonging to the al-Kurd family was taken over by settlers on 1 December 2009.
The ultimate aim of the Zionist organizations is to convert Sheikh Jarrah into a new Jewish settlement and to create a Jewish continuum that will effectively cut off the Old City from the northern Palestinian neighborhoods. On 28 August 2008,Nahalat Shimon International filed a plan to build a series of five and six-story apartment blocks – Town Plan Scheme (TPS) 12705 – in the Jerusalem Local Planning Commission. If TPS 12705 comes to pass, the existing Palestinian houses in this key area would be demolished, about 500 Palestinians would be evicted, and 200 new settler units would be built for a new settlement: Shimon HaTzadik
