International Solidarity Movement - Page 1319 - Nonviolence. Justice. Freedom.

Bil’in Commemorates Land Day

Bil’in Commemorates Land Day
by Martinez

All over the West Bank today, non-violent demonstrations were enacted against Israel’s Apartheid Wall and Israel’s theft of Palestinian land.

Today was the 31st anniversary of “Land Day,” a day when Palestinians commemorate the killing of six Palestinians in the Galilee in 1976. Israeli troops killed these non-violent demonstrators during peaceful protests over the confiscation of Palestinian lands.

Land Day’s encompass the Palestinian struggle against foreign occupation, self-determination, and national liberation. Today’s theme additionally focused on Israel’s Apartheid Wall and the denial of freedom of movement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Simultaneously, non-violent and direct actions were taken against Israel’s current system of Apartheid. Palestinians were joined by Israeli and international solidarity activists in the villages of Bil’in, Umm Salamuna, Budrus, and Qaffin, among other places.

In Bil’in, the non-violent demonstrations have endured for well over two years now. Israel’s Apartheid Wall has stolen around 60% of Bil’in agricultural land. Still, Palestinians in Bil’in march every Friday against this obstruction and blatant barrier to peace. With their numbers usually in the hundreds, the demonstrators continue to march to the Wall, where Israeli army routinely responds to the non-violent demonstrators with tear gas, sound grenades, and rubber bullets.

Today, on the commemoration of Land Day, things weren’t very different.

About 150 Palestinians, Israelis, and internationals gathered outside of the mosque in Bil’in. Posters were plastered to the walls bearing the message of Land Day.

Half way through the march to the Wall, separating the Palestinians from their land, one could spot Israeli soldiers hiding out under olive trees, lounging out in the backyards of Palestinians, waiting for the chance to intervene with the demonstration.

When I arrived to the gate in the Wall, a soldier was holding up a piece of paper and was speaking in Hebrew. Presumably this was their “Closed Military Zone” order. Palestinian and international press were already on the hill beside the gate. As the rest of the march showed up, slogans were thrown, “No to the Wall. No to Occupation.”

On the other side of the wall, an Israeli police water tank waited to shoot its high-powered hose at the demonstrators. They have used this in the past. Though I have never felt it, others have said that the chemicals the police put in the water make it “feel as if your skin is peeling off when it hits you.”

Demonstrators, demanding to get to their land on the other side of the Wall, began trying to dismantle the barbed wire that the army placed on the inside of the Wall. The police tank then began shooting its hose towards the demonstrators. They fired the hose a few times before the soldiers eventually crossed the barbed wire and into the non-violent crowd.

With their shields and helmets and guns as protection, some soldiers started to push at the demonstrators. Against the soldiers’ armor, some rocks were thrown by some of the Palestinian boys. In response, the army started to throw sound grenades from over the fence in the direction of the demonstration.

The army then crossed the demonstrators who had gathered at the gate and began to fire rubber bullets towards the direction of the rock throwers. The marchers who were still working on getting to the gate began to retreat from the firing, and back toward the village.

This left the demonstration in two parts—a “divide and conquer” tactic I think.

Soldiers tried to arrest one Palestinian protestor but the crowd around him “de-arrested” him by locking extremities. Several Palestinians were forced to the ground with Israeli shields. Some sound grenades were thrown in intervals. Off in the distance you could hear the army shooting rubber bullets at the crowd who had retreated.

Slogans and chants were made towards the army. After about an hour, the demonstration came to an end and people began heading back to the village. Memory told me that the army would continue to fire sound grenades and tear gas as the peaceful demonstrators were retreating. And today was no different.

As the Israeli soldiers were coming back from firing at other section of the demonstration near the village, they crossed us and began to fire tear gas. Three or four Palestinian boys were slinging rocks from the bottom of the hill towards the armed Israeli soldiers at the top, and the boys began their new targets.

But every few meters you would hear a canister hit the ground and see the smoke rise from it. Nearer to the village, I could see a water tank on a Palestinian’s rooftop which had been hit with presumably live ammunition.

Land Day in Bil’in ended with no arrests and minor injuries.

UN Committee Urges Israel to Revoke the Citizenship Law, Dismantle the Wall…

UN Committee Urges Israel to Revoke the Citizenship Law, Dismantle the Wall, Bind the Jewish National Fund to Anti-Discrimination Principles, and Recognize the Unrecognized Villages

ADALAH’S NEWSLETTER
Volume 34, March 2007

Adalah: “The UN Committee, which is composed of legal experts, reached these concluding observations based on the principles of anti-discrimination. Therefore the concluding observations constitute an official statement that institutionalized discrimination exists in Israel.”

On 9 March 2007, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (“the Committee”) issued its Concluding Observations, following its review last month of Israel’s implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (“ICERD” or “the Convention”). In its Concluding Observations, the Committee emphasized 25 areas of concern and recommendations regarding Israel’s compliance with the Convention concerning the rights of Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel and Palestinians living in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). Representatives of Adalah, Attorney Sawsan Zaher and Rina Rosenberg, Esq., and other Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights organizations participated in the UN sessions held on 22-23 February 2007 in Geneva.

The Concluding Observations reflected numerous issues highlighted by Adalah in its reports to the Committee noting Israel’s violations of the ICERD.

A high-level delegation of 13 state representatives, headed by Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Yitzhak Levanon, also participated in the Committee’s sessions. Nevertheless, many of the questions sent in advance to Israel remained unanswered, as the Committee noted at the outset.

The main concerns and recommendations adopted by the Committee, which is composed of eighteen independent experts including law professors, lawyers and former judges, included:

1) The right to equality and a prohibition on racial discrimination should be explicitly included in the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty.

2) Israel should ensure that the definition of the state as a Jewish state does not result in any systemic distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin in the enjoyment of human rights.

3) Israel should ensure “equality in the right to return to one’s country and in the possession of property”.

4) Israel should ensure that the World Zionist Organization, the Jewish Agency and the Jewish National Fund, which manage land, housing and services exclusively for the Jewish population, are “bound by the principle of non-discrimination in the exercise of their functions.”

5) Israel should revoke the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law (Temporary Order) – 2003, and “ensure that restrictions on family reunification are strictly necessary and limited in scope, and are not applied on the basis of nationality, residency or membership of a particular community.”

6) Israel’s policy of affording highly advantageous benefits, particularly for housing and education, to those who perform military service is incompatible with the Convention, bearing in mind that most Arab citizens do not perform national service.

7) Israel should assess the significance and impact of Israel Land Administration’s “social suitability” admission criterion to small communities, as it may allow in practice for the exclusion of Arab citizens from some State-controlled land. The Committee recommended that Israel take all measures to ensure that State land is allocated without discrimination, direct or indirect, based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin.

8) Israel should assess the extent to which discriminatory attitudes by employers against Arabs, scarcity of jobs near Arab communities, and lack of daycare centers in Arab villages are a cause of high unemployment rates, particularly for Arab women.

9) Israel should enquire into possible alternatives to the relocation of inhabitants of unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Negev/Naqab to planned towns, in particular through the recognition of these villages and the recognition of the rights of the Bedouin to own, develop, control and use their communal lands, territories and resources traditionally owned or otherwise inhabited or used by them.

10) Israel should address concerns that the psychometric examinations used to test aptitudes, ability and personality indirectly discriminates against Arab citizens in accessing higher education.

11) Israel should ensure that laws and programmes be equally devoted to the promotion of cultural institutions and the protection of holy sites of both Jewish and other religious communities.

12) Israel should increase its efforts to prevent racially motivated offences and hate speech, and ensure that relevant criminal law provisions are effectively implemented by prosecuting politicians, government officials and other public figures for hate speech against the Arab minority.

13) “A high number of complaints filed by Arab citizens against law enforcement officers are not properly and effectively investigated and that the Ministry of Justice’s Police Investigations Unit (Mahash) lacks independence.” The Committee regretted that Israel provided no comments in this regard as requested or information as to whether the persons responsible for the October 2000 killings have been prosecuted and sentenced.

14) Israel’s position that the ICERD does not apply in the OPT “cannot be sustained under the letter and spirit of the Convention, or under international law as also affirmed by the International Court of Justice.” Moreover “the Israeli settlements are illegal under international law.”

15) Israel should cease the construction of the Wall in the OPT, including in and around East Jerusalem, dismantle the structure, and make reparation for all damage. Israel should also “give full effect” to the 2004 Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice.

16) Severe restrictions on the freedom of movement in the OPT targeting a particular national or ethnic group, especially through the wall, checkpoints, restricted roads and permit system, have created hardship and have had a highly detrimental impact on the enjoyment of human rights by Palestinians, in particular their rights to freedom of movement, family life, work, education and health.

17) Different laws and practices apply to Palestinians and to Israelis in the OPT, in particular the unequal distribution of water resources to the detriment of Palestinians, the disproportionate targeting of Palestinians in house demolitions, and different criminal laws leading to prolonged detention and harsher punishments for Palestinians for the same offences.

18) While stressing that the Al-Aqsa Mosque is an important cultural and religious site for people living in the OPT, the Committee urged Israel to ensure that the excavations in no way endanger the Mosque and impede access to it.

19) Israel should increase its efforts to protect Palestinians against violence perpetuated by Jewish settlers, particularly in Hebron, and ensure that such incidents are investigated in a prompt, transparent and independent manner, are prosecuted and sentenced, and that avenues for redress are offered to the victims.

The Committee also recommended that Israel make its reports and the Committee’s concluding observations readily available to the public in both Hebrew and Arabic.

Israel should submit answers to questions not provided in its submission and representations within one year, together with information on any first steps taken towards implementing the Committee’s recommendations. Israel should submit its next periodic reports and address all points raised in the concluding observations in February 2010.

For more information, click: Adalah’s Special Report on UN CERD

Israel’s ‘new’ Procedures Change little at the Borders

Tens of thousands of families still face forced separation or de facto deportation

Ramallah – 29 March, 2007

Israel’s various announcements regarding new procedures for entry and visa extensions have failed to address, even superficially, the humanitarian crisis caused by its arbitrary, discriminatory and abusive exercise of authority over entry into the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). Three months since the announcement of new procedures, Palestinians and others of US, Canadian, European and other citizenships continue to be denied entry to the oPt. Several are rejected promised visa extensions. All without justification.

If, as Israeli authorities now claim, the issue has been addressed:

– Why is it that US citizen Amjad Ghassan A’abed and her 2-year-old baby girl from al-Bireh were denied entry at Allenby Bridge 7 times since January 2007, despite the fact that Amjad’s husband and their 3 older children hold Palestinian ID cards?
– Why is it that US citizen and businessman Abdelhakeem Itayem — who after being denied entry for months was finally given security clearance and subsequently entered, exited and re-entered the country several times since January 2007 — was again denied entry on March 13?
– Why is it that 84-year-old Emily Giacaman from Bethlehem, US citizen and an ex-Palestinian ID holder, a widow, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother of Palestinian ID holders, was recently denied a visa extension although she had entered the country legally?
– Why is it that on March 7, 67-year-old Fawzi Hamed from Turmos Aya, a US citizen, was detained overnight in a cell at Ben Gurion airport and sent back to the US on the following day? Mr. Hamed had been staying temporarily with his daughter in California since he was first denied entry last November. The Israeli border control officers explained why: “you are coming back to live with your family and hence you are not eligible for a tourist visa.”

Thus far, the only tangible change on the ground since Israeli announcements of new procedures has been the processing of few hundred limited visa extensions. While the Campaign welcomes the short-term relief visa extensions offer to individuals and families threatened with forced separation, these renewals provide for temporary admissions only; procedures for granting residency to foreign nationals whose center of life is in the oPt remain unaddressed. Israel’s continued refusal to process family reunification applications directly affects as many as 500,000 to 750,000 people who may be forced to leave the occupied Palestinian territory to keep their families intact. Together with the many foreign nationals who have established their primary business, investment or professional activities in the oPt, or otherwise aspire to build their lives in the oPt, the new procedures place them, at best, in a state of continuous uncertainty under constant threat of expulsion and exclusion. Moreover, as demonstrated by cases above, even those qualifying for limited duration visa extensions have faced refusals.

Amnesty International states in its report Right to Family Life Denied of March 21 that “the policy of not allowing family unification for foreign spouses has no discernible link to security. The Israeli authorities have not claimed that foreign spouses who are now prevented from returning to the oPt are a security risk to Israelis. The restrictions do not target individuals but apply to spouses of Palestinians in general and, therefore, are wholly discriminatory. As such, they may constitute a form of collective punishment against Palestinians in the oPt; the imposition of collective punishment is violation of international humanitarian law.”

As the Palestinian Campaign for the Right to Enter (RTE) feared, any hopes that Israel would base its exercise of control over oPt borders on legitimate security considerations, in accordance with international law, have failed to materialize. Israel continues to decide politically who may enter the oPt, for what purposes and for how long. Its arbitrary and abusive exercise of this discretion continues to cause serious and unjustifiable harm to countless Palestinian families, educational and social service institutions and businesses in the oPt.

For More Information:

Telephone: +970.(0)59.817.3953 Facsimile: +970.2.295.4903
Website: www.RightToEnter.ps Email: info@righttoenter.ps

More harassment and stonings in Tel Rumeida

Harrassment continues at checkpoint in Tel Rumeida
by ISM Hebron

At 11.50 at checkpoint 56 a Palestinian man approached the checkpoint, to pass from the Palestinian market to Tel Rumeida, with a metal cart with lots of bags and trays of food. The solider at the checkpoint refused to open the gate for the man and insisted that the man unload all the bags and trays and carry them through the metal detectors at the checkpoint. Only the empty metal cart would be allowed through the gate. The human rights worker (HRW) present at the checkpoint asked the soldier whether he could check the bags in the cart and then let it through but the soldier refused and insisted that everything be carrried through the checkpoint. The Palestinian man said that he had a problem with his back and leg and couldn’t do this but the soldier still refused to let him pass through the gate with the cart.

Finally, the HRW, the Palestinian man and an older female relative of his unloaded the cart and carried everthing through the metal detectors in the checkpoint. This took several trips through the checkpoint for each of them. There were some tins in the bags which set off the metal detectors but the soldier did not check the contents at all.

At 12.15 a Palestinian man approached the checkpoint carrying what looked like a large old-fashioned radio on his shoulder. Again, the soldiers refused to let the man pass through the gate so the Palestinian was forced to awkwardly carry the radio through the metal detectors. The metal detectors went off as the man walked through but the soldiers did not check the radio at all.

Israeli settlers in Tel Rumedia stone Palestinian home

Adolescent settlers stoned the Saaed family home again today. They broke windows and an external water pipe and terrorised the women and 8 children that live there (the men were away at work). Family members said they telephoned the police but got no response. They also said that they had called to the soldiers on the top of the nearby military post who did not react.

The Saaed home is located on a pathway that links the Tel Rumeida and Beit Romano settlements. This makes the home a convenient and regular target for settlers using that route, especially on Saturdays, the Jewish Sabbath.

Three HRWs arrived at the house shortly after the incident. They were interviewing family members when they noticed settler children looking over at the Palestinian house. Three settler boys, aged approximately 10, then began to throw large stones at the HRWs. When asked by one of the HRWs to stop, one of the children shouted “fuck you” and carried on throwing stones. The HRWs repeatedly asked a soldier stationed at a nearby military post to fulfill his legally required duty and stop the children throwing stones. The soldier told the human rights workers to vacate the area, which only seemed to embolden the rock-throwers.

An adult settler appeared and did nothing to stop the children throwing stones. He did, however, threaten to call the police. HRWs asked the adult settler to restrain the children but he did not.

As the HRWs were leaving the scene, the settlers trespassed on the garden of a local Palestinian. When the HRWs asked why they were standing there, as it was not their property, the adult settler replied that this garden was Jewish property.

Approximately 6 soldiers arrived and told the HRWs to wait for the police. When the HRWs asked the police to remove the settlers from the Palestinian garden, a solider told the them that the garden was a Jewish property. A policeman arrived and spoke to the settlers and soliders but would not talk to the HRWs even though one of the soldiers offered to translate. Finally, two of the ISMers were told by the soldiers to go with the policeman to make a statement.

At the police station, the HRWs learnt that the adult settler had accused one of them of assaulting him. A review of the video tape shot by one HRW at the scene showed that no assault had taken place. No one was charged and no one arrested.

The Saaed family has been prohibited from owning or using a camera to record the rock-throwing incidents, based on a flimsy excuse that they may photograph the nearby military post.

Palestinians build new outpost near Bil’in

YNet: Palestinians set up outpost near Bilin
by Ali Waked, 29 March 2007

Dozens of Palestinians from the village of Bilin in the West Bank set up an outpost on land they say was expropriated from them by Israel to expand a Jewish settlement in the area.

Accompanied by women and children, activists crossed the security border and built what they said was a makeshift center for child education.

Mohammad Khatib, a activist in a Palestinian organization against the security fence, said the purpose of their activity was “to prove to the world the racism and discrimination of the Israelis.”

A number of Israeli peace activists were also present.

Khatib added that the Ministry of Defense was continuing construction on the Matiyahu neighborhood in the Modi’in-Ilit settlement on land declared as Palestinian by the Israeli High Court.

The ministry’s civil administration argues that the land had been expropriated to meet the settlement’s demographic needs.

“We also need buildings. The administration has to explain to the world why it is demolishing buildings we build for our needs while it continues to build on land that has been declared as ours by an Israeli court,” Khatib added.

Khatib said a police force arrived at the outpost accompanied by a civil administration official. No violence was reported.

“We told them: You can demolish it but you will be breaching the law,” Khatib said of the newly set up structure.

Khatib said villagers wanted to know why the administration refused to grant them building permits while it allows settlers to build in a “wild” manner.

Palestinian and Israeli peace activists have been holding protests against the fence section near Bilin every Friday for over two years and frequently clash with security forces.

End YNet article

From Abedallah Abu-Rahma, Bil’in:

أهالي بلعين ينجحون في بناء الغرفة الثالثة لهم خلف الجدار
مواد البناء وضعت اسبوعين تحت الأرض
الخميس 29\3\2007
تمكن مجموعة من الشبان في بلعين من بناء غرفة أخرى لهم خلف الجدار ، وقد جاءت هذه الخطوة بعد سلسلة خطوات نجح خلالها أهالي القرية في اثناء نضالهم ضد الجدار والإستيطان ، وردا على الأمر العسكري الإسرائيلي الذي يدعو إلى هدم الغرفة الأولى ، التي بنيت في 25\12\2005 ،بمشاركة متضامنيين إسرائيليين ودوليين ، وقد ساهم بناء تلك الغرفة في وقف العمل والتوسع وعدم السماح بقدوم الساكنين الجدد لمستوطنة ميتاتياهو الشرقية المقامة على أراضي بلعين ، والتي تعتبر حي من أحياء مودعين عليت .

أما الغرفة الثانية فقد بنيت بعد ثلاثة أشهر من الأولى ، وكانت ردا على القرار العسكري الذي نص على مصادرة سبعة دنمات لبناء نقطة عسكرية للمراقبة فيها ، وقد نجحت اللجنة الشعبية من خلال محاميها بالحصول على قرار يلغي المصادرة ومخطط بناء النقطة العسكرية .

أما بالنسبة للغرفة الثالثة فقد خطط لها من حوالي شهرين ، حيث قامت اللجنة الشعبية لمقاومة الجدار بتخزين المواد اللازمة للبناء قبل حوالي أسبوعين ، وقد دفنت تحت الأرض ، لأن الجيش يأتي للتفتيش بين الفينة والأخرى ، وكان هناك مجموعة لرصد تحركات الجيش لانتهاز الفرصة المناسبة للقيام بهذه المهمة ، وقد كان يوم الأربعاء الساعة السادسة مساء ساعة الصفر لبدء العمل ، فما كان من مجموعة من الفدائيين الذين هبوا هبة رجل واحد بالعزم والإرادة القوية وإيمانهم العميق بحقهم أن أنجزوا تلك المهمة وبناء غرفة كاملة بمساحة خمسة وعشرين مترا في وقت قياسي لم يتجاوز ثلاث ساعات .

لقد بنيت هذه الغرفة على الأرض التي أعيدت للمواطنيين في قرية بلعين قبل حوالي ستة أشهر بقرار ما يسمى المحكمة العليا الإسرائيلية ، حيث أن جزءا من الأرض المعادة يقع في المستوطنة نفسها ، أما البيت الجديد فهو لا يبعد عن المستوطنة المذكورة سوى سبعين مترا .

وقد عبرت اللجنة الشعبية عن أهمية تلك البيوت ، حيث يتواجد فيها شباب القرية على مدار الساعة لمراقبة ما يجري في المستوطنة ، ولتشجيع الفلاحين للعمل في أرضهم دون خوف من أحد ، والقيام بالعديد من النشاطات والاجتماعات هناك ، أضف إلى أنها ساهمت في وقف الزحف الإستيطاني الذي كان يهدد معظم أرض القرية ، ناهيك على انها ساعدت المحامي في الترافع في قضية الجدار والمستوطنات غير الشرعية ،وأحقية اهالي بلعين في أرضهم .

لقد تزامن بناء هذه الغرفة مع الذكرى السنوية الحادية والثلاثين ليوم الأرض الخالد ، وبهذه المناسبة تعبر اللجنة الشعبية لمقاومة الجدار والإستيطان عن تشبث أهالي بلعين بأرضهم وتمسكهم بها وإن خير ما يقوم به المرء في مثل هذه المناسبة اعمار الأرض وفلاحتها والدفاع عنها والموت فيها ، ومن جهة أخرى تؤكد اللجنة على مواصلة التظاهرات الشعبية الأسبوعية ، حيث تدعو كل من يعشق الأرض ويدافع عنها الانضمام إليها في يوم الأرض يوم الجمعة القادم للوقوف في وجه العدو الغاشم ،لتحي هذه الذكرى الخالدة .

لمزيد من المعلومات مراجعة :
عبدالله أبورحمة – منسق اللجنة الشعبية لمقاومة الجدار والإستيطان في بلعين
0599107069 أو 0547258210 أو 022489043