Category: Reports

Young Palestinian women lead demonstration against the wall in Bil’in

Girls in Bil'in lead international protest against theannexation barrier Israel is building in thier village.

A group of twenty young Palestinian women aged from 13-16 led more than 400 people in a demonstration Monday against the illegal annexation barrier being constructed across land belonging to the village of Bil’in. Local villagers were joined by a large number of activists from a range of peace organizations, including around 200 international representatives from the Women in Black and members of direct action groups The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and the International Women’s Peace Service (WIPS).

Soldiers form a chain to guard stolen land for a settlement near Bil'in to be accessed by a group of middle-aged women.

This was the largest demonstration which has yet been seen in Bil’in, and the large numbers attending the action ensured that it could not be met with the violence which has often been the reaction of the IDF to village actions. However after the demonstration dispersed the few remaining demonstrators were attacked with tear gas and sound grenades.

The Peaceful demonstration confronted a line of heavily armed Israeli soldiers and demanded access to the Bil’in land being stolen and an end to the illegal occupation of the West Bank. The young women confidently approached the line of soldiers blocking the road, leading the entire group of women with chants and songs, and one of the girls read a statement the village had prepared for their guests.

Soldiers quickly surrounded the women who obviously posed some sort of threat to the illegal annexation wall Israel is building in the West Bank.

“We hope you take a look around and get to know the place and people here, and see what it is we’re trying to defend. We want as many people as possible to see what’s being done to our land with their own eyes, so they can make their own conclusions about what’s going on,” the teenaged girl said through a bullhorn in her speech to the gathering of hundreds of women. “… Settlers today are beginning to withdraw from Gaza. We are happy for the Palestinians there. But as that goes on, Israel is expanding settlements on our land here in Bil’in, and those settlers leaving Gaza are being brought here. This solves nothing, but rather moves the problem from one place to another. We need real answers that provides security for us all.”

BACKGROUND ON BIL’IN
Bil’in is a West Bank village which will lose approximately 52 percent of its agricultural land in the Israeli land grab begin carried out under the guise of “security.” Without access to their land, villagers will have lost their main source of income. This is an action which is being repeated throughout the West Bank and threatens the future self sufficiency of a Palestinian State.

About 200 or so members of Women in Black arrived in Bil'in and were joined by about 100 or more local women to protest the occupation.

Threats and worry in al-Asa’asa on the eve of Israeli disengagement

by Lee

Al-Asa’asa is a village of 500 situated right next to the settlement of SaNur. Radical anti disengagement settlers from all over the West Bank, many from Hebron, have camped out at SaNur, surrounding the small military settlement with tents.

Worry and anxiety about what these 280 settlers are planning to do is growing in al Asa’asa as disengagement approaches. The settlers are committed to not leaving the land, even though the settlement of SaNur is scheduled to be removed as part of Israel’s disengagement plan. Settlers are threatening to occupy houses in al-Asa’asa. If the housing takeover fails, the campers will still get monetary compensation for the disengagement.

Yesterday, a kidnap attempt by settlers was foiled. A boy was working in the fields when the ever-watching eye of the villagers saw settler vehicles approaching. The boy managed to escape and the settlers gave up. Also yesterday, a settler had to be removed from a neighboring village by border police. Today, campers have put out a call on media outlets for other settlers to join them and help resist the disengagement.

A few days ago, a funeral was interrupted by the villagers; the man who died had to buried in another village, since the DCO said it was too dangerous to have a funeral.

All roads to the village will be closed at midnight tonight.

Settlers hold Palestinians hostage as Northern West Bank pullout deadline looms

Hundreds of pro-settlement Israelis have flocked to the area around Jenin to protest the dismantling of four small settlements scheduled to be part of Israel’s disengagement plan for the northern part of the West Bank. Not exactly what you’d call a peaceful demonstration.

The group, numbering in the hundreds are flocking to settlements that have been mostly empty or home to small groups of people. Sanur, previous to this week, had a population of a little more than a dozen people. Now that it has been added to Sharon’s dismantlement list, there are reportedly about 450.

About 150 others have pitched tents to camp out near the small Palestinian village of Suweitat and have taken to throwing stones at villagers and stopping a family from holding a funeral at the village cemetery. At least one Palestinian has reportedly been kidnapped by the group. Israeli police were called in and after negotiating with the pro-settlement group for three hours, were able to free the Palestinian and get him back home.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s disengagement plan mostly focuses on settlements and the military presence in Gaza. However, four small settlements in the West Bank near Jenin (Ganim, Kadim, Homesh and Sanur) along with a nearby military camp are scheduled to be removed as well.

Long ignored by most, Israeli’s anger over Sharon’s plan has sent people in support of these often ghost town-like settlements scurrying out to the occupied territories in order to keep a foothold for what they see as an eventual expansion of “Greater Israel.”

“Masses of people will come,” pro-setttler spokesman Yossi Dagan said in in one report on the situation. “People are already familiar with the routes. When there will be tens of thousands of people here it would be impossible to deport them forcefully…. The prime minister will fail here. The Jewish people will come and prevent it.”

Meanwhile, roads in and out of Jenin have been shut by checkpoints, keeping many Palestinians there from being able to get to jobs, schools or to their family’s homes.

These four tiny settlements have as much legal standing as the ones in Gaza. However, Ariel settlement and all the others scattered around the West Bank also lack the legal standing to exist and are only in place because an Israeli military force keeps them there.

These token steps, taken in the West Bank are meant to distract from the massive land grab currently under way. While a few hundred supporters of “Greater Israel” work to keep in place what are essentially some squatter trailer parks, the thousands of Israelis living illegally on Palestinian land in the permanent colonial structures don’t seem to be in too much worry about having to pack their bags.

Soldier joins Bil’in protest

A wall moves through Bil’in

A woman who showed up in her military uniform along with protesters in Bil’in was quickly arrested by soldiers and transferred to IDF investigators for questioning. About 100 or so peace activsits carried their own version of Israeli’s annexation wall that is being built through villages like Bil’in. Soldiers detained more than 30 Israeli and foreign demonstrators. Two Israelis were arrested.

The soldier was taken to IDF investigators to be questioned. Her identity is not known, but an Israeli activist who is friends with her said she had been drafted one month ago and had questions about Israeli’s tactics of enforcing the occupation. While the protest neared the area of the village which was blocked by soldiers, she approached them to talk about what they were doing there. She was quickly whisked away.

Friday is Bil’in’s day of peaceful but direct protest against Israel’s illegal wall, which is being built though the village, cutting off locals from 60 percent of their land.

Palestinians, Israeli and International activists filled the streets in this West Bank village. At the front of the procession was an effigy of a crucified Palestinian on a fence. The fence represented the Wall, and the form of the Palestinian hung on it represented the suffering of Palestinians because of the Wall. Signs posted on the fence said that the Wall is a tool of death, and another two signs that said you take our land, you take our lives.

When the demonstration reached the wall of soldiers it stopped. After about ten minutes of chanting everyone took a side road to reach the site of the wall construction. At this point, the Israeli soldiers were caught off guard. Tear gas was fired and sound grenades exploded. A group of Israeli activists were separated and detained.

Internationals formed a line, locked arms and sat down in classic nonviolence civil disobedience. The soldiers tore people away. In all, 10 internationals were detained and 24 Israelis, 2 of which were arrested. The protest meanwhile went on and escalated to rubber bullets aimed at children throwing stones. Eventually the detained activists were released.

The United Nations’ International Court of Justice issued a ruling, though a nonbinding one, in 2004 saying the annexation barrier which zigzags around the West Bank is illegal and should be torn down.

At the demonstration, Palestinian activists handed out a statement to reporters and photographers who had made the trip to Bil’in to see what the situation was:

Help keep our village from becoming a prison

Dear media representative,

First, thanks for coming to our village. We like it here, and we want you to see what it is we’re trying to defend. We hope you take a look around and get to know the place and people here, and see that there’s something here worth saving. We want as many people as possible to see what’s being done to our land with their own eyes, so they can make their own conclusions about what’s going on.

If Israel is allowed to continue building its illegal annexation barrier on our land, it will mean death of Palestinian identity, security and any chance for sovereignty. It will mean the slow painful demise of our village. That’s the message of our weekly demonstrations.

Today we wear black, because it is the color of mourning. We feel like we are on a funeral march for ourselves.

Bil’in is being strangled by the Wall. Our village sits two and a 1/2 miles east of the Green Line, yet Israel’s Wall and settlements will take more than 60 percent of our land. This land is also money to us. Bil’in’s 1,600 residents depend on farming and harvesting olive trees for our livelihood. The Wall will turn Bil’in into a prison. It will further curtail the limited freedoms we now have.

We are not asking you for much. Just give us a chance to get this side of the story out. If this wall is for security, why is it being built so far from internationally recognized borders? Why is Israel creating so much animosity if it really is seeking safety? The reality of the situation is that this is a land grab. And in the process, it is killing us. We rely on you to get our message to the outside world. Pretty soon we won’t be able to. Pretty soon, we’ll be in a prison.

— Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall

  • “Everybody has to move, run and grab as many hilltops as they can to enlarge the settlements because everything we take now will stay ours … Everything we don’t grab will go to them.” — Ariel Sharon, then Israeli Foreign Minister, addressing a meeting of militants from the Tsomet Party, November 15, 1998