Week of Palestinian nonviolent resistance met with violence

On Wednesday, June 1, Israeli workers with chainsaws began to cut Marda’s trees, and in a five day period, they had cut more than 800 trees. Monday, June 6, bulldozers arrived to begin uprooting the cut trees, and they have been working every day since. After years of occupation, land theft, random arrests, and army invasions, this latest offence has caused Marda villagers to say, “Enough!” Ariel already has a fence surrounding it, they note. Why does it need another? And why on our land? Ariel has already stolen most of our land; why take even more?

Determined not to sit quietly while their land is destroyed, Marda farmers, in cooperation with the Popular Committee against the Wall and the entire Salfit region, and Israeli and international groups, decided to reclaim their right to be on their land and on their roads.

Saturday, June 4, 2005
The march from Marda to Kifl Hares was supposed to be proactive, preventative. Little did Marda know when they scheduled the demo two weeks in advance to coincide with the anniversary of the occupation of the West Bank that their land would begin to be destroyed so soon. Little did they know that their march from Marda to Kifl Hares, along the main settler highway (which had been used by Palestinians for decades before Israel’s occupation), would be more than symbolic. That they would be marching not only for the impending land destruction, but for the hundreds of trees whose crop had been cut from them just two days before.

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in the center of Marda to begin their march to Kifl Hares, which would end directly next to the entrance of Ariel settlement. More than 50 soldiers met demonstrators at the entrance of Marda before they left the village, telling the crowd it could not proceed beyond a white ribbon the army had placed across the road. The front line marched directly through the ribbon with arms linked, and came face to face with a line of soldiers, also with arms linked. Soldiers were armed with guns and batons, demonstrators with flags and signs, proclaiming, “Build trust, not walls,” and “Uproot settlers, not trees.”

As villagers and supporters continued to move forward, soldiers lunged at the crowd, beating several people, including one Israeli who had to be taken to a hospital. After Palestinian village leaders and officials including Mustafa Barghouti and Kadura Fares spoke with the army commander, the army finally allowed the crowd to walk through the olive groves and across the main road to get to a new road that Israel is building on Palestinian land. Villagers slowly made their way across, happy to see that the army had closed the road completely, to both Palestinian travelers and Israeli settlers. One boy who stayed in the road longer than soldiers wanted was grabbed and taken to a jeep, only to be taken back by three Palestinian leaders just minutes later. Demonstrators successfully made their way to Kifl Hares, followed the whole way by soldiers who continued only to let one lane of traffic pass on the settler highway. The demonstration was a huge success: Villagers completed their intended walk, closed the settler highway for some time, and made a statement to the settlers and soldiers of Ariel that their land could not be quietly stolen from them.

Sunday, June 5, 2005
Sunday morning, villagers saw Israeli workers with their chainsaws once again, cutting trees near the top of the hill as they had been the previous week. Again, farmers would not let this destruction happen without trying to stop it. About 20 adult men and one IWPS woman started up the hill, and were quickly followed by about 30 boys who ignored their elders’ order to stay below. We made our way towards the cut trees, and shortly before arriving, security guards and soldiers, whom most of us still could not see over the terraces and through the olive trees, began yelling at us not to come any further. When villagers advanced, one of the security guards fired a shot towards the ground directly in front of the crowd. “Do not move!” they screamed. “Can we talk to you?” people asked. Each time the response was, “Do not move!”

Despite the fear inspired by the private guards and army, Israeli workers had left the area quickly upon the group’s arrival, a major victory for the farmers, who had also stopped the work with a quiet confrontation the previous week.

The standoff continued for a while, with occasional pushing and shoving on the army’s part and chanting on the young men’s part (“hayalim labayta” – “soldiers, go home”). One man was hit on the arm and leg with the butt of a guard’s gun.

Soldiers briefly entered the village, throwing sound bombs and leaving quickly. The villagers stayed above, surveying the damage to their land. No soldier would claim responsibility for the situation or for the other soldiers’ or guards’ behavior, so there was no person to speak or negotiate with until Gilad from the DCO arrived. After brief negotiations, Gilad promised that the work would stop for the day and that the army’s lawyer and the village’s lawyer would have a meeting the next morning to decide how to proceed.

About a half hour after we returned to the village, the work resumed. The army had broken its promise.

Monday, June 6, 2005
At 7:30 Monday morning, farmers gathered in hopes of walking to their land to sit and stop the cutting of their olive trees. 10 farmers, 8 internationals and Israelis, and approximately 40 young men and boys walked up the hill towards the settlement of Ariel where 100-200 soldiers were spread out across the land, concentrating in two different locations on the hillside.

No Wall work was happening at first, but the farmers quickly noticed that a bulldozer had begun to uproot trees near the top of the hill east of where we were standing. The group walked towards the olive trees and was immediately met by tear gas. Soldiers fired approximately 200 canisters of tear gas in the next two hours, hitting two Palestinians directly. One farmer was taken to Rafidiya hospital and two Red Crescent ambulances treated 20 Palestinians.

At 11:00, 3 army and police jeeps entered the village and began to throw sound bombs. Palestinian boys threw stones, hitting a jeep, and four border police entered a Palestinian home, presumably looking for the stone throwers. Many cameras filmed this and the police left quickly without arresting any one.

The uprooting of olive trees continued unobstructed.

Wednesday, June 8, 2005
At 5:30 Wednesday morning, curfew was imposed on Marda, and the entire area of Marda, Iskaka, and Salfit was declared a closed military zone. The army and border police repeatedly entered the village from 5.30 am, throwing sound bombs and firing tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition into the air. Three internationals attempted to enter Marda at 6:45 am, but were stopped by soldiers and border police and threatened with arrest. Later, 5 Israelis and 2 internationals were able to enter the village and were also ordered to leave and threatened with arrest.

One young Palestinian man had his identity card taken but it was later returned to someone else in the village. Just before midday occupation forces arrested a 25 year old Palestinian. After many hours of confusion and concern, his family discovered that he had been taken to Qedumim. He is still being held.

Approximately 20 Palestinians were injured, among them a Red Crescent ambulance worker.

Friday, June 10, 2005
As villagers in Marda tried to make their way to their fields to pray the Friday midday prayers on their land, accompanied by media, internationals, and Israeli peace activists, tear gas clouded the skies. Four bulldozers that had been uprooting Marda’s trees stopped working as soon as the villagers began their march.

Mere minutes into the ascent upwards and only a few hundred meters up the slope, Israeli soldiers began firing tear gas and sound bombs at the villagers. While a number of soldiers fired from the hill, other military vehicles made their way into the village. Tear gas and sound bombs turned into rubber bullets, and the rubber bullets into live ammunition, reportedly fired directly at children. Soldiers shot tear gas towards the mosque and into a sewing factory where dozens of women were working. Four were taken to the hospital for gas inhalation.

Three Palestinians were injured by rubber bullets, one in the stomach, one in the leg, and one in the arm. One Palestinian’s thumb was broken when a tear gas canister hit his hand. Others were treated for tear gas inhalation. One international was detained for several hours and taken to Ariel police station, but was later released.

The DCO later claimed that the Israeli army fired only one rubber bullet and no live ammunition, and that a Palestinian had been shooting a Kalachnikov rifle. Villagers and Israelis collected the bullets and casings, however, and they were clearly from M16s, the rifles that the military uses.

Israeli soldiers threatened to return later that night.

Saturday, June 11, 2005
It is now Saturday, Shabbat, the day that most Israelis do not work. This apparently includes the chainsaw and bulldozer operators who have been coming daily from Ariel to destroy Marda’s land. It is a quiet day. The Israeli holiday of Shavuot begins tonight and will last for two days, hopefully ensuring that the work in Marda will not resume during this time. Shavuot commemorates Moses’ ascent to Mount Sinai where he received the Ten Commandments. Will the villagers of Marda be able to ascend their own mountain and receive anything other than tear gas and bullets?

Crackdown on non-violent resistance

Click here for pictures of the demonstration.

Around 1:30pm, around 300 demonstrators, including Bil’in residents, Israeli activists and internationals began marching in the direction of the construction site of the Annexation Barrier. The demonstrators were carrying mock tomb stones that read- “R.I.P. Residents of Bil’in, Cause of death: The Wall 2005”.

After about five minutes, the demonstrators approached the last houses in the village where the Israeli army had posted a warrant and a map that declared Bil’in and three other surrounding villages a closed military zone from 6am Friday until 6am Saturday. A large force of soldiers, border police and plainclothes officers were waiting for the demonstrators with a white van that houses the new Israeli army weapon, ‘the Scream’, behind barbed wire.

A number of demonstrators proceeded to lie down in the road under their tombstones while others began to remove the barbed wire. When the Israeli army turned on the Scream the demonstrators remained lying down. The military threw tear gas and sound bombs into the crowd and began arresting people. A Palestinian who was lying on the ground was hit and burned by a sound bomb. Soldiers refused to allow him to receive medical attention despite him bleeding from his leg. He was later arrested.

In addition to rubber coated steel bullets, tear gas and sound bombs, Israeli soldiers used a new weapon- a sponge cap attached to a hard plastic shell that is fired from a 40mm gun attachment and spins at high speed.

The army entered the village and Palestinian youth responded by throwing stones. Fifteen demonstrators, including a 15 year old child who was hospitalized after a gas canister was fired directly at him, were injured in the course of the demonstration from both the new and “traditional” weapons. An Israeli protester and a disabled Palestinian in wheel chair were hit by tear gas canisters and required medical treatment. Israeli army regulations prohibit direct firing of tear gas canisters at people, yet this is a common practice at non-violent demonstrations. The Israeli military spokesperson reported that three `security personnel’ were wounded by stones.

Seven demonstrators were arrested, including three Palestinians and four Israelis. One Israeli and one Palestinian were later released. The other arrested were brought to Giv’at Ze’ev police station and were accused of throwing stones (even though they were arrested before any stones were thrown). A video that was brought by Israeli activists to the police station proves that neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians who were arrested threw stones. However, the police interrogators only agreed to watch the part of the video showing the Israeli arrested. They said that discussion regarding the Palestinian arrested will take place another day. Subsequently, the three Israelis who were still under arrest refused to be released and all five have been taken to prison cells where they will spend the night.

One of the arrested is Abdallah Abu Rahma, a prominent member of the Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements. Members of the committee have thus far been detained, arrested, beaten and threatened, and their families have been harassed in the middle of the night by Israeli security forces. The entire village has suffered from collective punishment at the hands of the Israeli army for their persistence in non-violent resistance. In a recent Ha’aretz report the army commander in the area confirmed the use of collective punishment against villages resisting the wall.

Internationals Abducted by Israeli Security Forces

Yesterday, Tuesday 14 June, three internationals were abducted by two undercover Israeli agents on the streets of west Jerusalem in broad daylight. At approximately one PM local time, the three internationals, who have chosen to keep their identities anonymous, walked downstairs from the flat they had stayed in the night before and into the arms of the officers, who promptly surrounded them.

The agents demanded passports and cell phones, and told the internationals that they were needed at the nearby Russian Compound police station and jail for questioning. All three internationals refused, asking for warrants or any materials that could prove beyond reasonable doubt that any Israeli agents might have legitimate reason for detaining or arresting them. No reason was given. Instead, the agents told the internationals that they were only going to be detained, and that if they did not get into the unmarked car they would be arrested and dragged to the compound against their will. After a pointless argument about the nature of democracy and police action, the three internationals agreed to go with the agents.

Upon arriving at the compound—a place notorious for torture and the bloody screams that emanate from its basement—the internationals were, after a series of more pointless arguments with other Israeli agents, shuffled into a storage closet to await further direction. At this point, approximately 1:30, the internationals had not received any answers about why they were being detained, or who had issued the order for their capture. It should be noted that it is extremely rare for internationals to be arrested in the Israeli half of Jerusalem.

The internationals were left to sit in the storage closet until some of their friends arrived with their baggage and food. They were then allowed to sit outside and eat lunch. Finally, after being moved back into the storage closet, passports and cell phones still out of reach, the internationals were called, one by one, into an office with who they suspect were members of Israel’s General Security Services (GSS), the Israeli equivalent of the American FBI. While two of the internationals had overstayed their visas, the third had only been in the country for two weeks on a three month visa and was completely ‘legal’. It should also be noted that for the entire duration of their stay at the compound, amounting to four hours, the internationals persistently requested to call their lawyers and were completely ignored.

The ‘legal’ international was summoned to the office first. One of the plainclothes agents that had abducted the three was in the room, along with two other people not yet seen by the internationals. One of them had a digital camera, and though the international in question refused to have her picture taken at first, the agents made a (false) threat of arrest if she did not comply. They took perhaps 30 pictures of her. Finally, the other hitherto unknown character put a piece of paper in front of her, asking her to sign it. The paper said that she would be required to go to theimmigration police office the next morning, Wednesday, at 9 am. Signing the paper was the condition for her release from the Russian Compound. Though she initially refused, the officers told her that if she did not sign she would be kept in the jail overnight and driven to the office by the police the next morning. She signed.

The other two internationals were brought into the office, their pictures were taken and they were processed as arrested. They were then moved to the jail adjacent to the police station and kept overnight.

This morning, Wednesday, the third, ‘legal’ international appeared at the immigration police station with her lawyer. The immigration police had no idea why she had been summoned, and said they had nothing to do with it. After laughing for a few minutes with the Israeli lawyer, they said goodbye to the international and her lawyer and the international was free to go about her business as usual.

The two other internationals are awaiting deportation. One is in the process of being moved to Ramle prison, the other to Hadera prison. They have been told that they will stay perhaps one or two days in these prisons before being deported to their respective countries, the UK and the US.

The entire affair is difficult to analyze due to the nature of Israeli secrecy related to these matters. What we can be sure of is that the It seems that the Israeli police were in some way collaborating with the GSS. who were monitering the internationals According to Israeli law, the police must have a court order to tap phones, whereas the GSS does not. There seeme to be no other conceivable explanation for the presence of the two undercover agents outside the flat in west Jerusalem. They had been waiting and knew exactly where the internationals were. The ‘legal’ international has been working and living in East Jerusalem, doing research for the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs (PASSIA) through a grant provided by the Human Rights Project at her college in the United States. She had never been arrested or detained by any Israeli ‘security’ forces before yesterday. Though her lawyer urged her to sue the state for detainment without cause and personal damages, she has declined due to lack of funds.

Peaceful Prayer in Ramadin

The army declared the area a closed military zone in the morning, warning the villagers not to get close to the path, and put up a checkpoint on the main road to the village, not letting any cars in.

About 200 Palestinians took part in the demonstration, including many children and some women. There were 5 Israelis and one international present.

Ramadin had some land stolen from the village in ’48 where Kibutz Lahav now sits, and a very close by settlement, Eshkolot, is also sitting on their land. The path of the wall is going to surround the south of Ramadin and take more of their land now.

The demonstration started towards the path, with at least 70 soldiers present. The villagers held a prayer on the land for about an hour, and then started to get closer to the path, beyond a line of stones the army decided was their non-crossing point. The soldiers then approached and after “negotiation” with the head of the village, the village decided to end the demonstration without a confrontation with the army and return to the village.

Salfit has been announced a closed military zone

Curfew was imposed on the village of Marda at 5:30 AM, and the entire area of Marda, Iskaka, and Salfit was declared a closed military zone. The Civil Administration informed Israeli activist Laiser Peles from Tel Aviv, who protested the curfew, that the village was being punished because some residents had thrown stones. Soldiers and border police repeatedly entered the village from 5.30 AM onward, throwing sound bombs and firing tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition into the air and into a home, breaking its window. Approximately 20 Palestinians were treated for tear gas inhalation, among them a Red Crescent ambulance worker who was injured when a tear gas canister was fired at an ambulance. In addition, a 25-year-old Palestinian was arrested.

Two days ago the military dispatched hundreds of soldiers in the area and fired approximately 200 canisters of tear gas in two hours to prevent protestors from coming near the site of their uprooted trees. One farmer was taken to Rafidiya hospital and two Red Crescent ambulances treated 20 Palestinians.

Today Thursday June 9 a hundred people began to march in the direction of the construction site of the Annexation Barrier Wall in Salfit. They were still at the outskirts of the village when the Israeli military fired large amounts of tear gas and sound bombs at them. Soldiers arrived and announced the area a “Closed Military Zone.” When Israeli activist Jonathan Pollak responded that the area was “An Open Palestinian Zone,” he was arrested. Five Palestinians required medical treatment for tear gas inhalation and three Palestinians were beaten until they lost consciousness. They were taken to the hospital by Red Crescent ambulances. In addition, one international and one elderly Israeli activist have been arrested. If the Wall is completed as planned, the town of Salfit will lose 6,500 dunums (1625 acres), more than 25% of its land.

Tomorrow, Friday June 10th, villagers and supporters will meet at 10:30 am in the center of Marda to walk to the land where their olive trees are being uprooted. The farmers of Marda will attempt to hold prayer service on their land. Marda has seen at least 1000 trees cut and an unknown number uprooted in the past week to make way for the Ariel loop of the Annexation Wall, 20 kilometers (12.2 miles) east of the Green Line.