Left-wing activists and Palestinians cut a 30-meter hole in the security fence south of Mount Hebron on Saturday in a demonstration against its construction and route, which they said deviates from the Green Line.
The activists said it took Israel Defense Forces at least an hour to reach the site of the incident. There were no clashes between the activists and IDF troops.
Jonathan Pollack, one of the protesters, told Haaretz the group had arrived at the site at around 1:30 PM, and had joined forces with a group of Palestinians from a village near Dahariya.
The demonstrators even succeeded in disarming the electronic wiring and posts that reinforce the fence.
Pollack stressed that the part of the fence that was destroyed deviates from the Green Line set out in the ceasefire agreement following the 1948 War of Independence. However, he said the activists’ Saturday protest was against the fence in its entirety. “The fence is a symbol of the occupation, whose aim is to control the Palestinian population,” he said.
Israeli historian Ilan Pappe describes the period around the declaration of Israel’s independence as one during which the indigenous…Palestinian population was ethnically cleansed from the land when they were forced from their homes or fled in terror after hearing news of rapes and massacres at other villages. Today, the situation is not much better for the Palestinians under Israeli rule. The purpose is essentially, “To make things so difficult for the Palestinians so that anyone who wants a normal life will leave.”
About 100 international, Palestinian, and Israeli activists, and demonstrators, gathered in Bil’in village on the morning of August 10th 2007 for what was to be the 131st demonstration against the illegal Apartheid wall and the Israeli settlement of Modiin Ilit.
It would be the first demonstration since the illegal squatting by Israeli settlers on unfinished homes in the settlements, a consequence of the bankruptcy of Heftsiba – an Israeli real estate company. The bankruptcy came about as a consequence of a court order delaying the construction of homes in the settlements of Modiin Ilit, Matityahu Mizrah, Betar Ilit and Maleh Adumim.
On a normal Friday, the demonstration would take place at approximately 1pm following midday prayers, however today organizers had decided on a new strategy. The original idea was to initiate the demonstration at 10am, approaching the Apartheid Wall at a time when there would be fewer soldiers which would enable the demonstrators to do essentially what they came to Bil’in to do: demonstrate. This seemed to be an increasingly difficult task as week after week soldiers fire tear gas, sounds grenades and gas canisters before demonstrators get anywhere close to the Wall. Unfortunately, the military were well informed of the demonstrators time change and were prepared at 10:00am to disperse the demonstration. The demonstration began shortly after 11am, later than the soldiers had expected, but also much earlier than usual.
Demonstrators marched enthusiastically towards the Apartheid wall, chanting and shouting, expressing to the world and media about their hopes for an end to the occupation, their desire to see the Apartheid wall brought down, and wish for the soldiers to go home. As with most demonstrations in Bil’in, things didn’t stay enthusiastic for very long as Israeli soldiers and border police quickly released a hail of tear gas canisters and sound grenades upon the demonstrators.
As demonstrators moved back to avoid the gas, the army began to encroach upon them, moving through the olive groves from the road and from the flanks. When they came upon groups of demonstrators, with their hands held to the sky in order to show they had no weapons, there was still no hesitation by the soldiers in throwing further tear gas canisters and firing sounds grenades.
When the soldiers and border police saw that some demonstrators refused to leave the area they attempted to arrest a local Palestinian man known as Abdullah. Several international activists came to his assistance, helping to prevent the army from taking him in an arbitrary arrest. The soldiers were not willing to give up so easily and grabbed and kicked at activists trying to get them to let go of Abdullah. However the demonstrators managed to hold onto Abdullah and he was not arrested.
The army continued to attempt to arrest a number of other international and Palestinian demonstrators in a form of harassment designed to beat them down and break their confidence, but due to many quick actions on the part of the demonstrators many were able thwart the army in their attempts to disperse the demonstration.
It seemed that the demonstration was going well, for the demonstrators, until the Israeli soldiers managed to take a British activist. The activist was asthmatic and was struggling to breath when the soldiers grabbed him and, between four soldiers, carried him away while he was still desperately trying to gasp for air.
Several activists followed, as the soldiers carried the asthmatic demonstrator away, calling out to the soldiers to address his medical condition and the need for treatment as it was a life threatening condition. As the demonstrators pushed forward, desperately trying to ensure the health of one of their fellow activists, they were instead met with aggression as the soldiers responded by firing more tear gas and sound grenades on the demonstrators.
A local Palestinian man offered to speak Hebrew with the soldiers, trying to alert them to the arrested demonstrators condition, but was arrested. A further Palestinian man was grabbed and detained, for no apparent reason, along with another French activist present. Beyond this, many of the activists suffered various injuries varying from tear gas inhalation, through to cuts bruises and grazes from the military as they pushed, shoved, beat and kicked demonstrators; attempting to arrest many more. The most serious injury was a severe cut to the head of a female demonstrator who was hit by an Israeli soldier as a group of them tried to arrest her. In total were five people were arrested (though later found to just have been detained): two internationals and three Palestinians.
For some time after the soldiers continued to fire tear gas at the demonstrators and eventually after some time demonstrators appeared to be given sufficient space and time amidst the tear gas to enable them to retreat. Demonstrators walked back to the village, hands held in the air in a gesture of non-violence, yet as what appears to be a last glance round, the military began throwing tear gas once more towards the demonstrators with no apparent regard for the fact that they were retreating anyway.
Demonstrators re-grouped at the International House in Bil’in and after a period of rest, and refreshment, activists were called to begin the demonstration once again. There was a decision to go back once more in order to get as close to the apartheid wall as possible, and hopefully convince the soldiers to release their detained friends.
When the demonstrators once again approached the apartheid wall, which the soldiers again stood in front of, the soldiers again quickly fired tear gas to disperse the demonstrators. About fifteen demonstrators managed to evade the tear gas and stay in front of the soldiers who also shot rubber bullets to ensure that the retreating crowd would stay away. The remaining activists quickly sat on the road, hands in the air, in front of the soldiers in order to show that they were still unarmed and just wanted to peacefully demonstrate.
After about fifteen minutes, with the demonstrators inching closer and closer to the soldiers, an officer came to speak with the crowd. An Israeli activist, present with the remaining demonstrators, negotiated with the army officer that they would be able, three at a time, to approach the apartheid wall; which had been the goal of the demonstration at the beginning. The Israeli activist also managed to convince the soldiers to release their detained friends. However Palestinian youth, unaware of the negotiations, and angry at the military aggression in their village, threw some stones on the soldiers, who were, at the time, distracted by the demonstrators. This managed to effectively cease all negotiations, and the detained demonstrators were held for a longer time as the soldiers chased after these Palestinians youth: firing rubber bullets as well as tear gas on them.
At around 12 PM, an international observer was detained by border police while trying to obstruct the passage of around 20 soldiers and police involved in arbitary violence towards a Palestinian man. This man had become separated from the rest of the demonstration because of sound bombs and tear gas being thrown by the police, and was subsequently being pushed, kicked, and punched by police and soldiers.
The observer chose not to walk and was carried away by 6 border police. The arresting party was followed by a camera with a live feed to Israeli TV. When the camera left the soldiers began to kick and punch the detainee. They tried dragging him along the ground by his hair and then one officer stood on his face, while another twisted his arm, and another kicked him in the side. The observer also had asthma which was being triggered by the attack. Needless to say he agreed to walk.
However, when he stood up one solder grabbed him by the throat and began to strangle him. When this officer released his grip the observer attempted to use his inhaler but was prevented from doing so. One officer actually pulled his hand away from his face while he was trying to use it and broke the inhaler. A second observer, seeing what was happening ran after the soldiers shouting to them that they needed to allow him to use his medication. The officers detained him also.
They tied both the detainees wrists with plastic cable ties and took them to a razor wire pen where there were already two detained Palestinian men. The pen, on the ‘Israeli’ side of the annexation wall, was around two meters in diameter, in the sun with no shade. After a few minutes the asthmatic detainee was finally seen by a medical person and was given medication, before being returned to the pen. All four detainees remained there for for over 3 hours,leaving the detainees with sunstroke and sunburn. One of the detainees shirts was ripped off his back in his arrest making detention in the sun even more dangerous.
After around 3 hours all 4 detainees were escorted back through the annexation wall and released without being given a reason for their detention.
The detained demonstrators were all released between 3:30 and 4:30pm into the village of Bil’in, and fortunately none were arrested.
A Ordinary Afternoon in Jenin Refugee Camp, 9th August 2007.
It is 5.00 pm at the Jenin Governement hospital when the first rumours are spread that the IOF is once again on its way to Mukhaiyem Jenin, the Jenin Refugee Camp. Ambulance drivers jump in their cars, make their self ready for what usually happens when the Israeli Army enters the town.
Half an hour later they arrive. 7 Israeli military jeeps and one caterpillar power shovel, coming from the north through Haifa street, enter the area around the hospital. They drive along the streets, sometimes stop for awhile, disappear and come back after a few minutes. The more laps they take, the more Palestinians enter the area. In the end more then 500 Palestinian men and kids border the street, turning the area into a this typical Palestinian battlefield, that is a stone rain against Israeli soldiers, sitting well protected behind some centimetre of bulletproof steel.
Out of tiny portholes muzzles of Israeli M16 rifles can be seen, when the first shoot are fired. The IOF shoots directly inside the camp, responded by single shoots of the Islamic Jihad fighters. 14.000 people live here, crowed on not more then one squarekilometer. The risk of killing somebody by randomly shooting inside this massive populated area is enormous.
But for the Israeli army it seems to be more a chance then a risk. Nobody of the Palestinians knows why they came this time and perhaps not even the Israeli soldiers would have good explanations. In the end it was just another example of the daily humiliations and provokations, the inhabitans of Jenin Camp have to bear. None of the soldiers made a single attempt to arrest or targeted kill somebody. It was just another episode of showing the Israeli supremacy, showing that the IOF can go everywhere, ausing massive violence without any reason, even in one of the last strongholds of Palestinian resistance. And finally it was another degradation of Fatahs al-Aqsa Brigade, who recently agreed with laying down their weapons and a mutual ceasefire and who didn’t fire a single shoot since this time.
More then three hours later the tragic game is over. The Palestinian kids go back to their houses, leaving back a street, covered with stones and garbage. Another time the IOF caused unprovoked and unnecessary violence, just because they are able to. The ambulance drivers return to their station, forntunatley empty-handed, knowing that it won’t take long until they have to come back.
For about 25 minutes, they behaved liked lords of the land: One man, followed later by a young guy, descended from Mitzpeh Yair, one of the unauthorized outposts in the southern Mt. Hebron area, and prevented a United Nations jeep from traveling. UN directives prohibit leaving the vehicle in such cases, in order to avoid an escalation of friction. And so we, three Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) staffers and two Haaretz journalists, were forced to watch them demonstrate their lordliness from inside the car: The older one blocked the vehicle, in the middle of the unpaved road, with his body. Using hand movements, he ordered the engine shut down. When that didn’t happen, he jumped on the hood and then on the roof and back on the hood, and finally lay back on the windshield and played with the wipers, taking them apart. The driver progressed slowly down the track, and the man leaned back on the windshield with force, until it broke and shards went into the driver’s eyes.
In the meantime, the younger guy appeared. He tried opening the doors of the jeep, screaming, “show me your identity cards” and placing big rocks in front of the wheels. By the time the army and police drove up, the older man yelled at Haaretz photographer Alex Levac: “Go back to where you came from.” When he realized that Levac was a Jew and born in this country, he shouted: “Traitor, going with the UN.” Both the older man and younger guy living at the outpost were born abroad. The younger man, a British citizen, has not yet been given new-immigrant status.
But what does that matter? It also didn’t matter that the soldier described them as “problematic” and that the police are familiar with the older man from previous incidents of harassment. Nor did it matter that the police officers did not believe their absurd story that we had been in their olive grove and that we had tried to run the older man over. The tactic is one that is well-known from Hebron, the same tactic that helped to cleanse the Old City of most of its Palestinian residents: Jews harass and bully and then threaten to lodge complaints against their victims with the Israeli police.
Harassment and sabotage of a much more serious nature than what we experienced has become routine for the Palestinian shepherds and farmers in the area. As a result, about 850 of the 3,500 or so inhabitants of the area known as Masafer Yatta (Yatta’s periphery) have left their habitations, in caves and tent encampments. Sometimes it is their access to water sources that is damaged, sometimes their herds, other times themselves. They have piles of papers attesting to the police complaints they have submitted. Until they stopped filing complaints.
It is easy to blame the two men, or those like them. But they practice terrorizing Palestinians because Israeli authorities let them do so.
In their own way, they do the same thing the “legitimate” occupation authorities do: They drive the Palestinians off their land to make room for Jews. In other words, they are following orders.
About 10 days ago, a Civil Administration inspector impounded a tractor and water tanker belonging to the Hadidyah, a community of farmers and herders in the northern Jordan Valley, as a pressure tactic aimed at getting them to leave their tent encampment on the grounds that it is located in a closed military area. They are one of dozens of communities that have been living in the valley for many decades. Since 1967 the Hadidyah have been displaced four times. Using all sorts of inventive tactics, the occupation authorities have turned these communities into unauthorized residents on their own land.
The springs and wells they used were turned over to the Mekorot Water Company: The water from the national company’s drilling nearby is used by the “legitimate” settlers and its use by the Hadidyah is prohibited. As a result, they have to truck in water from a distant spring. The army has declared large areas of the valley firing zones. They end at the boundaries of the settlements.
The Israeli authorities have refused to rezone land to enable the community to live in the place the elders remember as their childhood home. But the adjacent land has been rezoned for the residence of Jews, Israeli citizens. Now the Civil Administration is hoping that thirst will drive them out of the piece of land allotted to them, which no longer has any land suitable for agriculture or grazing. That is Israel’s policy toward the Palestinians in a nutshell, and talk of peace has not stopped it. The residents of the unauthorized outposts are merely imitating it and receiving both inspiration and protection from it.
