In November 2002 the first section of the Israeli Aparthied Wall on Palestinian territory in the West Bank was under construction in the Qalqilya district. This short film looks at how the Wall will affect Palestinian communities and what locals and internationals were doing to resist the construction of the wall.
Filmed by a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement.
You can find the film at the Internet Archive.
photo by AP
11 December 2005
Despite an Israeli checkpoint that prevented journalists from accessing the village, a peaceful march of one thousand people, Christians and Muslims, went forward on Sunday in the West Bank Village Aboud. The march was stopped by Israeli soldiers three hundreds meters from bulldozers digging up Abud’s land to construct the annexation barrier.
Latin Patriarch Michael Sabbah led a short worship and then planted an olive tree, symbolically protesting the destruction of hundreds of trees by the construction of the annexation barrier. The route of the wall on Aboud’s land will de facto annex Bet Arye and Ofarin settlements together with 4000 Dunams (around 1000 Acres) of Aboud’s agricultural land to Israel. The march was joined by Israeli and international activists .
Patriarch Michel Sabbah addressed the crowd and the Israeli soldiers guarding the bulldozers:
“With our faith and love, we demand the removal of this Wall. We affirm that it is a mistake and an attack against our lands and our properties, a mistake and an attack against friendly relationship among the two people. (…) In your faith and your love you shall find a guide in your political actions and in resistance against every oppression. You may say that love is an unknown language to politics, but love is possible in spite of all the evil we experience, we shall make it possible!”
After the Patriarch’s departure, one hundred people stood in front of the soldiers singing slogans against the Wall. Israeli activist Jonothan Polack was arrested for trying to plant an olive tree.
photo by AP
By ISM local contact
Today, 11th December 2005, at 2:30am, the IOF troops invaded the west bank village of Jayyous. They searched houses and arrested theVice President of the Jayyous municipality, Mr. Issam Muhammad Hassan Shbaita.
Mr. Shbaita is known as a local human rights activist for his work that coordinated with international organizations that helped to resist the Israeli occupation. More recently, Mr. Shbaita was known for his efforts in joining the international calls for the release of the four kidnapped Christian Peacemaker Teams activists in Iraq. He has been coordinating with local people and the Popular Committees Against the Wall and Settlements to send a strong call to release the CPT activists.
Jayyous village has suffered a lot from the construction of the Israeli apartheid wall. Lately the Israeli government has started building a new settlement on the confiscated lands. This is not the first time the village has been invaded by the occupation forces.
The people of Jayyous have been a great example of popular resistance. They say that these actions of the Israeli occupation force will not stop their resistance.
http://www.jayyousonline.org
Villagers from Bil’in, supported by international and Israeli activists, succeeded in planting three new olive trees at the construction site of the illegal apartheid wall, close to their village on the West Bank. Soldiers responded to this practical and symbolic gesture with brute force and by shooting tear gas and rubber coated bullets at the non-violent demonstrators.
At 12:15, about 200 Palestinians, accompanied by 50 International and Israeli activists, started to walk toward the construction site of the wall. Still far away from the line of soldiers that awaited them, they were nevertheless fired on with tear gas canisters, in an aggressive attempt from the Israeli soldiers to stop the protest before it had even begun. One Israeli activist was directly hit with a tear gas canister leaving burn marks on his head and shoulder.
Eventually, after regrouping, the demonstrators managed to reach the construction site, chanting and clapping their hands. Soldiers, apparently eager to do something violent, arrested an Israeli activist, Yonatan Polack, for no apparent reason other than the fact he was carrying an olive tree saplings. He was released a few hours later when the demonstration had finished. A Palestinian activist spoke, condemning the construction of the apartheid wall and the violent Israeli occupation of Palestine. He also called for the release of the four hostages from CPT (Christian Peacemaker Team), who are currently being held in Iraq.
The demonstrators started to plant the olive trees on what, according to international law, is Palestinian soil. The saplings were meant to symbolically replace over two hundred olive trees stolen by the companies building the large Modi’in Elit settlement on the lands of Bil’in. Soldiers pushed the demonstrators around, beat them, and dragged them on the ground, but did not manage to stop the new trees from taking root. A group of illegal Israeli settlers stood by one of the military jeeps and watched the spectacle, photographed the demonstrators, and made sure that the soldiers were doing their best to safeguard settler interests.
After the trees were planted, the demonstrators started to head back to the village. At this point, soldiers fired more tear gas canisters. UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories, John Dugard, who is preparing a report for the U.N. general assembly, was overcome by teargas. Rubber bullets were also fired, one of which hit a Palestinian boy in the foot. He received immediate care from medical personnel in the area under the branches of an olive tree, while the air was still thick with tear gas.
AP wire photos:
On Wednesday the 7th, another demonstration calling for the release of the four CPT hostage in Iraq was held in al-Manara, Ramallah, at 4:30pm. On the same day, a press conference calling for the release of four was held in Nablus.
Ramallah residents, Palestinian women from the Women For Life group (who had come all the way from the Salfit region) and international supporters and friends made up the quiet, dignified demonstration. Just as darkness started to fall, candles were lit as a symbol of hope for the release of the four. Large fiery torches were also lit, as a way of making a visual impact and drawing attention to our calls for freedom. There was a decent amount of media there, and we can only hope and pray that the message got through to the kidnappers in Iraq, and that our friends will be released soon.
We held up pictures and large posters of the four hostages, showing them in Palestine and Iraq protesting against the apartheid wall and for the human rights of prisoners and detainees. US citizen Tom Fox was pictured protesting against the wall. James Loney was pictured in Iraq advocating for detainees rights. The large poster of Harmeet showed him with Palestinian children on a farm in Jenin. There were also signs in Arabic and English calling for their release.
Palestinians across the political spectrum have consistently called for the immediate release of the four over the last week, as well as all other civilian hostages in Iraq.
AP Photos of the demonstration:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/051207/481/mm10112071723 http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/051207/481/mm10212071724
CPT Pictures of the four:
http://www.cpt.org/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=album142
![“Israeli troops stop [an Israeli] protester from planting an olive tree”](http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/051209/ids_photos_wl/r3670993723.jpg){kind=link}
