Category: Reports

Report from Nablus

by phone from Paul in Nablus

I spoke with Paul last night (about 9am in Nablus). He, Nat, Leah, Alberto, Jonathon and 2 other ISM volunteers (one from Ireland and the other from Vancouver) are currently in a home in Nablus that has been identified as being at risk of demolition. The 7 ISM internationals arrived to the home last night as family members were stripping the house of all valuables and personal items in anticipation of the house being destroyed. All relatives have now left with the exception of the 2 elderly grandparents (the grandfather is disabled from a stroke), who are being accompanied by the internationals. The house is anticipated to be a target because the son was a suicide bomber. The family described the son as “going crazy” as a result of several friends and family members killed, tortured and taken away and after seeing what had happened in Ramallah last March.

Israeli troupes are throughout the town of Nablus. As Paul and I spoke, I heard several explosions. The ISM volunteers had to hike cross-country into the city as they were unable to pass through the checkpoint. The group of internationals were repeatedly redirected by patrolling soldiers as they walked through the city streets, at times being unable to negotiate as warning shots were fired before they could get close enough to be heard by the soldiers. Yesterday, Paul and the others witnessed approximately 50 men being blindfolded and loaded onto buses near the old city. There were many journalists present. They also came
across a house which had been taken over by Israeli soldiers, confining the two families who lived there to the bottom floor and occupying the upper levels.

The internationals successfully persuaded one of the soldiers to locate diapers in the home and give these to the family, who had an infant locked in with them. Also during the day, they observed two patrols searching homes, following the soldiers from house to house and accompanying the families as they were forced to stand in the street while soldiers ransacked their homes. At one point, a soldier attempted to leave with a 12-year old boy when Paul was able to call attention to this and the boy was returned unharmed. As the soldiers went on with their search, they forced a Palestinian man to enter each home before the soldiers would go inside. The internationals asserted to the soldiers that this is a violation of the Geneva Conventions, forbidding the use of civilians as human shields. The soldiers eventually stopped this tactic after being reminded that “The Israeli army is said to be one of the most moral in the world, and that such behavior has the appearance of calling that status into question.”

At this point, the internationals are planning to stay at the house for as long as it is considered to be a target. IndyMedia has been notified and Paul’s sister called KPFA and left a message there. Apparently the Orange phone does NOT work in Nablus and only a couple of them have other types of phones that are functioning. There is no electricity in the house so they are unable to keep non-Orange phones and video cameras charged. There is a landline to the family’s home, which is how we communicated.

My Arrest and Detention by Israeli Police

The author being arrested

by Andrew Clarno, U of Michigan Sociology Grad Student

On Saturday, August 11, 2001, at about 2:30 pm, Israeli police arrested me while I was standing on the sidewalk at the edge of the American Colony Hotel parking lot.

I had arrived at the American Colony Hotel at around 2:15 pm along with twenty to twenty five other members of the International Solidarity Movement in order to peacefully demonstrate our opposition to the recent Israeli invasion and seizure of the Orient House. For about ten minutes, we witnessed clashes between Orthodox Jews and Palestinian youth and then we began our non-violent protest. As we stood in a line on the sidewalk, holding signs and calling for justice and peace, we were attacked by the police. Without warning in either Arabic or English, the soldiers came towards us, tearing the signs out of the hands of international protesters, while [singling out and] violently pushing and grabbing at Palestinian protesters. We began to chant “No Violence, No Violence”—calling on the police to recognize the non-violent nature of our protest and reinforcing our commitment not to respond violently to the violence used against us by the police. But the assault by the police continued. Soon police were pushing us all down the hill towards the American Colony. I saw several protesters knocked to the ground and kicked by the police while I was being pushed down the sidewalk in a group of protesters.

I had nearly reached the driveway of the American Colony Hotel when a police officer grabbed the beltloop in the back of my jeans with one hand and my right shoulder with his other hand. Although I did not resist, he forcefully dragged me into the street and put my head in a violent chokehold. His tight grip on my neck made breathing nearly impossible as he carried me nearly 100 meters up the hill towards Abu Obeidah street. We turned onto Abu Obeidah street, where the officer shoved me into the back seat of an SUV, then leaned into the front seat and reached around to punch me in the face twice with his left hand.

In all, seven internationals and four Palestinians were arrested at the protest that afternoon. We were all taken to the [former] Russian Compound, [an Israeli area] notorious for the torturous methods of interrogation and the violence perpetrated against prisoners by Israeli guards. One of the Palestinians was then released and the rest of us were charged with illegal assembly. In a seemingly random manner, a few of us were given the additional charge of assaulting a police officer. We were taken to our cells where we were held until 11:00 pm when a judge heard our case and gave the police 24 hours to complete their investigation.

The following day, one Palestinian and one international were released without conditions and five internationals were offered release on condition of not returning to the area of the Orient House. [They reluctantly accepted this unjust offer, but only because their work on the outside is of such immediate importance.] The two Palestinians and I were brought before a judge and the police asked that we be held three days so that they could pursue their investigation of charges that the three of us had attacked police officers. The judge again offered the police 24 hours to produce enough evidence to bring charges against us, so we were returned to our cells and kept in prison another night. On Monday, August 13, 2001, the three of us were again brought before a judge. The police released one of the Palestinians on similar condition as those offered to the internationals the day before.

Regarding the other Palestinian and I, however, the police argued that they had enough evidence to charge us with assaulting the police officers. They asked that we be detained for four days so that they could file charges against us and begin the trial process. The police have taken testimony from a police officer who states that he witnessed me push another police officer. They also presented testimony from the officer that arrested me – the one who grabbed, choked, and punched me. He states that I ignored his requests that I disperse and that I attempted to choke him.

Our attorney, Lea Tsemel, challenged all of this evidence. She highlighted the fact that the arresting officer did not mention this alleged attack in his initial arrest report and that his testimony was taken only after the police had decided to charge me with assault.

Yesterday evening at 7:30 pm, the judge decided that there was enough evidence to charge the two of us with assaulting a police officer, but that there was not enough risk [of flight] to keep us in prison pending further investigation. Therefore, Mahmoud Q. Mahmoud and I were released last night on condition that we not return to the immediate vicinity of the Orient House for forty days and that we agree to show up for further questioning and trial. The police were given forty eight hours to file charges against us—which they have vowed to do.

I insist upon my innocence. I did not physically or in any other way assault or even threaten to assault a police officer or any other individual. I was never given orders to disperse and I did not resist arrest. I have always been a non-violent person and have supported struggles around the world for peace and justice. As part of the International Solidarity Movement Campaign to End the Occupation, I am committed to a program of non-violent actions in support of the Palestinian people in their struggle for national liberation and against the brutality of the Israeli occupation. The violence that day was perpetrated by the Israeli police – not by the protesters. The world has taken notice because the violence was directed against an American citizen and caught on film. But I guarantee that the charges are completely fabricated. I am convinced that they have been designed to undercut the non-violent campaign to end the occupation.

Please do not allow the Israeli police to portray and convict me as a violent offender. Please do not allow them to undermine our struggle for a just and non-violent resolution to this conflict. Thank you. I certify that the above is true to the best of my knowledge.

Human Shield in Beit Jalla

The International Solidarity Movement is staging a week long campaign in Beit Jalla to stop indescriminate shelling of family households.

On Monday the 24th, a group of Internationals organized by the International Solidarity Movement have placed themselves within the line of fire between settler and Israeli forces and the residents of Beit Jalla. Beit Jalla is located South of Jerusalem, near the settlement of Gilo and the city of Bethlehem. The activists chose to focus on Beit Jalla due to increased military activity in the area.

A rotating group of about 20 Internationals from the U.S., Canada and Europe have launched a week long campaign. They are staying at area houses of families most likely to face retaliatory gunfire and shelling from military bases stationed beneath Gilo.

Their message is- if you fire at Beit Jalla, you fire at us.

Activists from the International Solidarity Movement were invited to the area by families who were concerned for their own well being in light of recent attacks by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF).

Last week, the IDF launched an attack in the city of Bethlehem against suspected Hamas members believed to be carrying out a bombing attack against the Maccabiah Games in Jerusalem. Gunships fired missiles at a car used by the suspects, and four people were killed, including two bystanders. Hamas members then carried out an attack on Gilo from a U.N. sponsored refugee camp just East of Beit Jalla. IDF forces responded by firing into the refugee camp and occupying a family house in the area to survey the area and launch attacks.

Families of Beit Jalla and the International Solidarity Movement are calling for a peacekeeping force to come in and separate the sides in the conflict until a just resolution can be reached.

The Israeli government under Ariel Sharon has consistently denied the need for intervention, and rejected an offer by the Group of Eight during their recent summit in Genoa, Italy, volunteering to send in an observer team to assess the situation. Instead, the Sharon government agreed to allow several more C.I.A. advisors into Israel.

The International Solidarity Movement is a local organization that works with Palestinians to coordinate activities in the West Bank to raise awareness about the Occupation.

About 20 Internationals participate nightly by staying in homes most likely to be targeted by the IDF. Since the beginning of the Intifada (Sept. 29th, 2000), as many as 500 homes have been fired upon, some in no apparent response to any thing, and the bombings can take place for the better portion of a day. Families of the most damaged houses are hosting the activists during their stay for the entire week. 5 people have been killed in Beit Jalla, as well as over 100 injured, and over 200 families have been forced to evacuate their houses to avoid Israeli attacks.

Up to this point, the area around Beit Jalla has been unusually quiet, but nightly residents closest to the area facing Gilo file out of their homes to a safe distance before any shelling begins.

Bidya roadblock removal

16 Peace Activists Under Arrest for Dismantling Roadblocks Outside Palestinian Villages

Following a nonviolent act of resistance today in which Israelis, Palestinians and internationals worked to dismantle a roadblock outside the Palestinian villages of Bidiya and Maskha, Israeli soldiers forcibly dragged away and arrested 15 of the activists, who are currently being held in the police station of the Ariel Settlement.

The large roadblocks were set down by the Israeli army to prevent the residents from leaving or entering their villages. Working only with hand tools and their bare hands, the activists managed to move huge boulders and clear away some of the blockade, when army reinforcements arrived and demanded that they leave. The activists initially ignored the army orders, when the soldiers began to physically restrain them. At that point, the activists sat down on the road and linked arms, but the soldiers dragged them away, threw them into paddy wagons, and brought them to the nearby settlement, where they are currently being interrogated. Two Israeli women were wounded during the forced evacuation.

Those arrested include 6 Israelis, 2 Palestinians, and nationals from Italy, France, Sweden, Canada, and the United States. Luisa Morgantini, a member of the European Parliament who was participating in the action, was not arrested.

After the arrests, the army used tear gas to disperse the villagers and others on the site.

“Israeli policies in the territory are brutal and are being done in our name,” said Gila Svirsky from the Coalition of Women for a Just Peace. “It is our moral obligation as Israelis to not cooperate with this inhumanity, and we will continue to do so.”

The action was co-sponsored by Israeli and Palestinian peace organizations, including Rabbis for Human Rights, Gush Shalom, the Coalition of Women for a Just Peace, and the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement.