Category: Reports

Palestinian Shepards “Tear down the wall”

Palestinian protetors in Mnezel, South Hebron hills, built a passage over a wall built on their land using rocks. They piled the rocks on both sides of the wall despite threats from the border police that they would force them to stop. The protestors succeeded and a shepard was able to bring his flock of sheep over the wall

About 120 people gathered for the demonstration including women and their children who were chanting and many children carrying signs calling for no wall and no settlements. A young man from Mnezel in a non violent direct action drove his tractor to the wall and used it to push on the wall to open it. The border police, army, and Israeli civilian police forced him to stop.

The people of Mnezel joined by people from Tuwani, Yatta, Qawawis, and Beit Ummar, international and Israeli activists began a demonstration protesting the inner wall. This wall, which is 80cm high, separates them and their sheep from free access to their land and other
villages.

The wall also separates the people of Mnezel from hospital and educational services, which are in Yatta. To reach them now they must travel very far around a checkpoint or pass through an opening in the wall near a settlement and risk harrasment by settlers.

In another part of the demonstration, people of Mnezel raised their concerns about the wall to the DCO commander, who was present. According to the commander, the DCO would agree to open a spot on the wall tomorrow if it appears on the map the DCO previously distributed. He added that he would request from his officers to have an opening in this place in case there isn’t an opening on the original map of the DCO.

In two days he promised to come back and report to the people of Mnezel the decision of the DCO regarding their demands. As a temporary solution during this period of waiting, he asked for the people’s ID cards so that they will have an easier time of passing the checkpoint.

Israeli Court Rejects Wall Challenges

Hisham Jamjom an International Solidarity Movement local coordinator and a resident of East Jerusalem talked about the effects of the Wall on the local residents of those areas: “When my children grow up and want to marry, they will not be able to build houses in Jerusalem and will thus be forced to move to the West Bank. In contrast, the settlements are allowed to build huge apartment buildings, that can house tens of families. Also, villages that fall outside what Israel defines as the Jerusalem municipality, such as Beit Furik and Biddu, are forbidden to build new houses. In order to even apply for a permit, you have to come up with thousands and thousands of dollars. All this is forcing Palestinians out of Jerusalem into the West Bank. The merchants here have no income, because they depend on both tourism and the Palestinians from surrounding villages and people from other Palestinian cities such as Hebron, Ramallah, etc.

“The Wall will force scores of Palestinian families to leave Jerusalem and loose their residency there. All of this comes as part of Olmert’s plan which is to create a Jewish Jerusalem, and he has implemented this policy in a wise way,” Hisham added.

Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the Israeli Supreme Court rejected two efforts to change the route of the Wall in the West Bank around East Jerusalem. In both cases, Palestinian residents argued that the Wall would be built on private land and cut them off from their “centre of life” in Jerusalem. One argued that part of the barrier would be built on a cemetery that is still in use.

The court ruled for the government, which argued that the “security” needs of the Wall outweighed humanitarian concerns. The government argued that residents could still enter the city through passages located near their neighbourhoods.

Daniela Yanai, a lawyer at Ir Amim, an Israeli advocacy group that deals with Jerusalem issues, said the decisions reflect Israel’s goal to strengthen its hold on East Jerusalem.

Israel claims all of Jerusalem, West Jerusalem occupied in 1948 and east Jerusalem and the surrounding villages occupied in 1967, as its capital. In 1980 Israel officially annexed “East Jerusalem”.

International law, governments around the world (including the UK and the US who both keep their official ambassadors to Israel in Tel-Aviv, not Jerusalem) and the Palestinians view the parts of Jerusalem east of the Green Line captured by Israel in 1967, as the capital of the future Palestinian state.

Bil’in Demos Endure – Even During the World Cup!

Photo By IMC Israel

By ISM Media Office volunteer

Today Palestinians from the village of Bil’in had another demonstration against the apartheid wall. They were joined by internationals from several different countries as well as Israeli activists.


photo Tess Scheflan

There is a small outpost on the outside of the village on the other side of the annexation barrier. This is within view of the Israeli settlement there. Different people are posted daily to keep watch. Two activists–one from Sweden and one from the UK–staying here for several days, were present during the World Cup when their countries played against each other. TV Arabia came to interview them in this interesting circumstance, that they should be here, struggling together against this illegal occupation, watching this game with other Palestinians while their friends were possibly in the stands or at home enjoying the same match.

From this, an idea for today’s action was born. Several people came dressed in various team jerseys representing different countries, and a giant soccer ball was created for use in a mock match. In addition, several activists wore white t-shirts stained with red paint to represent the continuous massacre of Palestinians while the world enjoys the football games in Germany.

We arrived at the fence, where soldiers greeted us with jeeps, guns and shields. There were several people who threw the large soccer ball around, and things were relatively quiet until a local man was seized by the soldiers and pulled over the gate where he was carried away by more than 5 soldiers. He was later released.

The soldiers crossed the gate and tried to push us back. People lay in the white ‘blood’ stained t-shirts blocking the jeeps passage until they started to toss sound bombs into the crowd.

Afterward activists linked arms and sat down in front of the jeeps passage. The soldiers didn’t advance further.

Children tossed rocks at the soldiers, and they released tear gas upon the group as we walked. Afterward we debriefed the day’s actions together before parting.

Report on Recent Settler Attacks in the South Hebron Area

by Musa Abu-Marya. Translated by Sunbula

al-Jab’a

June 13th: The problem – the settlers that are residing in Beit Ain located near the Gush Etzion settlement bloc, and between Beit Ummar and al-Jab’a are engaging in hostile actions in areas surrounding the two villages. Today, the settlers set fire to land in al-Jab’a as well as some of the olive groves and other farmlands. The farmers depend on their land, but some of them have been unable to reach their lands close to the settlement in the last 5-6 years, due to repeated assaults on the same person or on his land. It is evident that the policy being followed is one of forced evacuation and the planting of fear into the hearts of the farmers. The lands that were burned belong to the al-Tous and al-Mesha’ala families from al-Jab’a.

Beit Ummar

Jaber al-Sulaiby is the owner of the land that was attacked on June the19th 2006. On this day, a settler from Beit Ain came down to al-Suleiby’s land many times with a flock of goats that proceeded to eat the grapes, plums and other fruit trees. There were numerous complaints filed with the Gush Etzion police but without any result. The settlers and their goats were not stopped from attacking the land. There were also a number of peaches and cut trees that were found on the ground. Additionally, most of the unclean (sewage) water was found poured on to the land of the Suleiby family.

Palestinian nonviolent activist profiled by Israeli army

by Zadie

Musa Abu Marya, a peace activist from Beit Ummar, was again detained by the Israeli army on Sunday June 19. A group of five Palestinians and international peace activists were traveling along the settler road 137, which borders the Gush Etzion settlement bloc. At about 7 p.m. we were stopped by soldiers and told to leave, except for Musa who they said would be arrested.

The two internationals refused to leave and took pictures of the soldiers surrounding Musa, tying his hands behind his back, blindfolding him and putting him in the Jeep. The soldiers attempted to take away one international activist’s camera, wrestling with her until finally giving up. Inside the Jeep a soldier interrogated Musa, threatened to take him to prison, and beat him on the back of his head with his gun.

After an hour and a half, they let Musa go and forbade us from going to Jab’a, our destination.

This is the second time in two weeks Musa was detained and beaten by the military while walking with internationals in the area. There was no clear reason for his detention in either case and an order to stop people who were in the area was never provided. Both times Musa was stopped near settlements and questioned about what he was doing with internationals.

A lawyer from Machsom Watch commented on the detention, saying that the army was fully within their rights under the military law that rules Palestinians in the region to do everything they did, except beat him. “It is a police state,” she said.

B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, reports on the difference in civil right between Palestinians and settlers living in the same region, “Israeli civilians living in the Occupied Territories are not subject to military or local law, like the Palestinians, but are prosecuted according to the Israeli penal law. This situation is extremely grave: in a single occupied territory, Israel is operating a system of separation with discrimination by law.”

The presence of the settlers in the region threatens the rights of Palestinians. By law the Israeli army can stop Palestinians from nearing settlements, and detain and arrest them, even on their own land.