Category: Reports - Page 757 - International Solidarity Movement

The Heroes of Tel Rumeida

By Mary Baxter

The heroes of Tel Rumeida are twelve children, who need to pass by or through the Tel Rumeida Israeli settlement to get to school. They are from about 5 to 14 years old. They are frightened of the settlers who threaten and at times attack them. But still they come six days a week. Israeli settler children travel by bus past Palestinian houses but Palestinian children must walk, often by themselves.

The settlers want their houses in order to expand their settlement but the Palestinians will not sell. Hence the threats! One family was driven out of their home but won a court case and are now back in the house. The court order said there should be police in front of their house when they return from school. This seldom occurs. Other families were shut in their houses for three years. Settler caravans have been placed on their street and they were not allowed use the street to come and go. In July 2005, they won a court order to have a rough track parallel to the street, on their own land. There was an incident in December 2005 when one of the families tried to have goods delivered to the track and settlers objected. Following that Israeli soldiers placed razor wire across the entrance and along one side of the track. The family again have access to the track but the wire is still there. Everyday children must open razor wire and walk along a track, where they are between settlers on one side and razor wire on the other.

These children are often yelled at or detained by young Israeli soldiers. The soldiers, who are mostly reasonable young men are “carrying out orders” and do not understand the situation. They see the settlers at their best. Although the Palestinian children are often very frightened, they keep the passage to their houses open. They are the bravest people I know.

“You won’t impose your wall on us!”

In the continuation of the non-violent resistance to the annexation wall in the Palestinian village of Bil’in, demonstrators carried a model of the wall with the sentence “You will not impose your wall on us” written in Arabic. The 150 Palestinian, Israeli and international activists were, as usual, prevented from reaching the wall by Israeli soldiers and Border Police. As demonstrators attempted to pass the line of soldiers, sound grenades were thrown and activists were beaten with wooden clubs by the Israeli forces. One Palestinian man was clubbed in the head and taken away in a Palestinian ambulance, and several others had minor injuries.

During a calmer period of the demonstration, a small ceremony was held to honor and thank one international activist who has spent almost 2 months living in Bil’in. He helped protect the outpost which was built on the Bil’in lands which the wall effectively annexes to the Israeli settlement. The outpost was built as a Peace Center for the joint Palestinian, Israeli and international struggle against the wall.

Several activists succeeded in getting around the army line and banged on a metal gate with stones. One by one soldiers brutally dragged them back to “their” side of the imaginary line which the soldiers had drawn. Imaginary line because in actuality all of the area, including the wall construction site and the settlement, belongs to Bil’in village. As the demonstration continued more and more activists were able to get around the soldiers to bang stones on the metal fence, and the soldiers gave up on trying to drag them all back behind the army line. Even though about half the demonstrators had already passed this line, soldiers continued to be very forceful in their attempts to block more people from crossing.

Towards the end of the non-violent demonstration, a few hundred meters away, a couple of village youth and Israeli soldiers were engaged in their weekly battle of stones versus tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets. After most of the demonstrators had returned to the village, at least a dozen live ammunition shots were heard coming from this direction.

Non violent activist faces 11th court appearance

By Harrison Healy, Jerusalem

On February 8, Palestinian activist Mohammad Mansour made his 11th court appearance relating to “crimes” committed at a demonstration in 2004. For over a year-and-a-half, Mohammad Mansour has been repeatedly required to appear before Judge Ron Alexander of the Israeli “peace” court in Jerusalem. He has been accused of throwing stones, encouraging others to throw stones and being involved in “illegal demonstrations” inside the West Bank.

Each time the judge has deferred the case. The prosecution has repeatedly asked for more time to gather evidence against Mohammad Mansour, yet despite constant harassment they have find any evidence to support their claims.

At Mohammad Mansour’s previous appearance on February 15, his court hearing was postponed until March 21. On his way home from Jerusalem, Mohammad Mansour’s bus was stopped and he was detained for an hour before receiving two invitations to visit Israeli intelligence. The last time Mohammad Mansour declined such an invitation, intelligence officers went to his father’s house and threatened him with arrest.

Mohammad Mansour attended the interview but no-one spoke to him. They simply kept him waiting for several hours in a small room.

Without reason, the court date was changed from March 21 to March 8. Attending was difficult for Mohaamad Mansour, as his Palestinian ID does not authorise him to be in Jerusalem, forcing him to avoid checkpoints in order to reach the court. The prosecution requested still more time and was granted a deferral until September 10.

Send messages of support to Mansour at mohammad_pal68@yahoo.com

Harrison Healy is a member of the Australian socialist youth organisation Resistance, and is currently working with the ISM in Palestine.

United action against apartheid wall

By Harrison Healy

Since January 2005, there have been regular demonstrations in Bil’in against the apartheid wall being constructed in the West Bank. The wall has divided Palestinian towns, destroyed homes, removed access to fertile land and imprisoned the Palestinian people.

The town of Biddu was one of the villages that succeeded in Its campaign to divert the route of the wall, but five Palestinians lost their lives in that campaign. Four of those killed were shot during the first demonstration, yet the town kept on fighting. Actions in villages like Budrus and Biddu also helped get many locals involved in anti-wall demonstrations in other villages. Nine Palestinians in total have been killed in anti-wall demonstrations.

There are rallies every week after Friday afternoon prayers in Bil’in, Abud and Beit Sira, and since March 4, weekly Saturday demonstrations are organised in Tulkarem, where the wall has cut off nearby villages such as Jubara. The rallies are organised by popular committees in each village and are supported by international solidarity activists and Israelis.

In Beit Sira, people have planted olive trees to replace those the army tore down and in Abud the demonstrations have involved burning army blankets used to flatten the road. In Bil’in, the villagers have organised mock lynchings on the wall, international conferences attracting hundreds of participants and soccer games across the wall. They also use mirrors to reflect messages like “Stop the wall” onto soldiers’ flack jackets.

Bil’in villagers have also constructed two outposts on the other side of the wall, facing multiple illegal Israeli settlements. The army would like to destroy these small rooms. Every night, Palestinians and international activists camp out at the outposts to have fun together and express their solidarity.

The number of villages wanting to take action is growing. The ISM, the International Women’s Peace Service and Operation Dove have all contributed to the success of the demonstrations, along with Israeli activists ho commute to the West Bank each week to support their Palestinian comrades. The impact of the Israeli presence at the demonstrations is significant – an Israeli border police officer admitted in court that police are given different shooting instructions if there are Israelis in protest crowds.

Yet injuries and deaths have still occurred and even Israelis aren’t safe from being harmed. On February 24, 17-year-old Israeli activist Matan Cohen was shot in the eye by a “rubber” bullet (metal coated with a millimetre of plastic) at a demonstration in Beit Sira. He may lose much, if not all, of his sight in that eye. Palestinian demonstrator Hussni Rayan was also shot at close range with a steel rubber coated bullet that entered 8cm into his body during the protest.

Harrison Healy is a member of the Australian socialist youth organisation Resistance. He is currently working with the ISM in Palestine.

Bil’in Continues to Defy Israeli Violence

by Henry

The weekly non-violent protests against the Israeli Apartheid wall continued this Friday in Bil’in, with Palestinians from the village uniting once again with Internationals and Israelis in a display of resistance to the ongoing theft of their village’s land. Today’s demonstration featured a large tomb which symbolized all the people and villages that are being killed by the wall. Written on it was “RIP, Victims; Villages who’s land was stolen, Reason; The Wall and the Occupation, Year 2006.”

The demonstrators proceeded to the wall site, where the soldiers quickly destroyed the tomb, using sound bombs at very close range to the crowd. The Israeli, International and Palestinian demonstrators refused to leave the area and resisted much violence by the Border Police and soldiers in doing so.

Israeli Military seen destroying the tomb

Within an hour’s time, two Israeli protesters were detained, and the Popular Committee Members asked everyone to begin returning to the village, where another group of soldiers were advancing into the village, firing tear gas and rubber bullets.

By forming a line between the Palestinians, the Internationals and Israelis were able to help prevent a Border Policeman (who was using the retreating people as cover) from arresting a young Palestinian child. The crowd then returned to the wall site in defiance of the Israeli Military forces, extending the protest.

When the demo by the wall finally ended, the activists were able to use their presence to help remove the soldiers from the village, where they were inciting stone-throwing by the village youth, but only after firing over 20 tear gas canisters in rapid succession.

Abdullah Abu Rahma, coordinator of the Popular Committee Against the Wall, states “the presence of the army is provocation, their checkpoints, wall, settlement activities and land grab are direct violations to our rights, and the international law”, Abu Rahma added, “We have a protest center behind the Wall, we always protest peacefully there, we have the right to resist the occupation and to resist the land expropriation policy practiced against us”.

The people of Bil’in are using the symbols and language employed by Israel for the theft of Palestinian land in a bid to hold onto village land that Israel is attempting to annex for the Wall and settlements. The Israeli government’s efforts to remove the Palestinian outpost contrast starkly with Israeli government’s support for the establishment of hundreds of illegal Israeli settlements and outposts throughout the West Bank. Approximately half of Bil’in’s lands are being isolated from the village by the Wall. The village will lose at least 1,950 dunams if the Wall is not removed.

The struggle of Bil’in has been going on for over a year, and their will to resist the Occupation and the Apartheid Wall has not diminished. The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) is calling for volunteers to come to Palestine and continue our support of Bil’in’s non-violent resistance during ISM’s Spring and Summer Campaigns.

Photo: AP

(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)