Midnight raids carried out by Israeli patrols are the norm in the northern West Bank’s Nablus area. They hit the southwestern town of Sarra when residents are sleeping. Regardless of the frequency, the invasions still come as a shock and have turned lives into living nightmares.
Teacher Radwan Abdullah is a Sarra resident. He says that what is happening in the town is systematic, and what exacerbates the horror of it all is the absence of media attention.
Abdullah told PNN on Thursday that six houses have been overtaken by the Israeli military in recent days. “Ten masked soldiers stormed the houses and tore through different sections, searching and interrogating everyone and then forcing them to leave.”
He continued, “The same force came back the next day to a nearby house and did the same thing. They went through six houses like this. One of the owners, Mohammad, has been suffering for years because of this type of attack and the military post erected at the entrance to town, which restricts the movement of the population and the introduction of goods. There is no justification for these occupation incursions. The suffering of the population of Sarra is just increasing all the time.”
Israeli forces have erected several barriers on the road that links Nablus to Qalqilia and the rest of the West Bank, including checkpoints and military installations, which severely restrict freedom of movement.
Abdullah has issued an appeal to human rights organizations to expose the reality of life under occupation in a global forum.
by the Palestinian Body for Peace, Dialogue and Equality (HASM )
Sunday 14th of January
School children from Nablus dressed up like Native Americans will gather in a peaceful demonstration at Huwarra checkpoint. On the other side of the checkpoint, Israeli peace activists will be gathered to support their demonstration.
We are not demonstrating to end the Occupation together as no Israeli civilians are allowed to enter Nablus, and the children from Nablus will have great difficulties getting out through Huwarra Checkpoint.
Over four weekends in January and February, Palestinian, Israeli and international peace organizations will gather at both sides of Huwarra Checkpoint to protest against the regime of barriers which severely retricts movement in the West Bank. They will sing and play, have a photo exibition and in other ways demonstrate for peace.
Nablus under siege
We are doing this as Nablus is the most imprisoned city in the West Bank. Since 2002 it has only been possible to enter through six checkpoints. It is even more difficult to exit. Men between 16 and 45 (it varies from day to day) can only exit their city with a special permit that can be obtained only outside Nablus. Almost nightly its citizens are the victims of violent military
raids and their lives have not been peaceful, or normal for years.
The people of Nablus are regarded as terrorists by the Occupying Forces who deny them their human rights and subject them to collective punishment.
Internal Palestinian political conflicts have resulted in large numbers of Palestinians refraining from participation in collective resistance against the Israeli Occupation. We support non-violent methods of resistance and cooperation between different Palestinian, Israeli and international groups. Until now there has not been a clear strategy to coordinate various peace activities to achieve justice for all.
The lack of progress towards peace has made the new generation of Palestinians disillusioned and made them lose faith in their abilities to improve their situation.
• This project expresses the will of most Palestinians and represents their rejection of the Occupation without sacrificing their children or themselves.
• We designed these activities to express our resistance to the Occupation in general and the closures around Nablus in particular
• We hope that people from all countries and organizations will support the children of Nablus in these peaceful demonstrations at Huwarra Checkpoint .
An international Human Rights Worker (HRW) was arrested by the IDF in the Hebron district of Tel Rumeida at 1:40 p.m today. He was accompanying five Palestinian men along Shuhada Street in their attempt to exercise their right to walk past the Beit Hadassah setlement as stipulated in a recent Israeli High Court ruling. Three Palestinian men succesfully crossed this boundary on Friday 29 December which has been off-limits to Palestinians for the last six years. To travel from the Bab Al Zawiye market district in the north of the city to the south, Hebronites have to either drive around, taking 15 minutes, or walk, which takes over an hour. The roads on this circuitous route are often clogged with traffic. Walking from Bab Al Zawiye down Shuhada street to the other side of the Old City takes around 10 minutes.
As the five men and the HRW reached the settlement, the soldier on duty stated that they were to wait to be “escorted” by his commander even though this condition is nowhere in the ruling which was shown to the soldiers. The commander was however in a meeting and only arrived 50 minutes later. By this time three of the five men had already left as it was raining heavily. The commander escorted the remaining two men down Shuhada Street as far as Gross Square, but stated that the HRW was not allowed to use this road. The HRW obeyed and followed the group from a pathway above the road, which is perfectly permissable.
The HRW reached the end of the pathway and was observing the Palestinian men who had passed through Shuhada Street succesfully with a IOF escort. A bypassing Jewish settler colonist who noticed the HRW stopped his car, rolled down his window and began shouting at the HRW in Hebrew. The HRW did not react to this in any way. The settler then put his car indicator on and began making a U-turn in order to approach the HRW. Being trapped, and fearing attack, the HRW ran onto Shuhada Street in the direction of the soldiers in the hope that this would deter the settler.
Upon reaching the group of soldiers the HRW immediately apologised to the commander and told him that he had only run down Shuhada Street because he was being threatened by a settler and sought protection from the soldiers. The commander refused to listen and ordered the HRW to stand and place his hands against the wall. The HRW was searched and his hands then tied together behind his back. He was then put into the back of an IOF Jeep and blindfolded. These actions of the IOF are illegal as they are not allowed to arrest internationals – according to Israeli law this has to be done by the border police.
After being driven around and waiting in the Jeep the HRW was taken to a police station where the blindfold was removed and plastic tie-wire cut from his wrists. He was then charged with “disobeying a soldier’s orders” and finally released at 4:00 p.m on condition that he not enter Shuhada Street again, or would be liable to pay a fine of NIS 2000.
After this HRW was arrested another nine Palestinians adults and four children waited for almost one hour in the rain to be allowed to walk down Shuhada Street. In this time they were all extensively searched. Whilst walking along the street two settler girls started throwing stones and hitting them. The police approached but didn’t do anythng and the Palestinians continued walking.
One Palestinian who had already had his ID checked and been searched, was being detained again on Shuhada street. Mary Baxter, the HRW who was arrested two weeks ago, asked the soldiers why he was being detained again. She was shouted at to move away and asked to show her passport. On doing this the soldiers snatched her passport from her hands and refused to return it. They also refused to let her shelter from the rain and cold for over half an hour. The police arrived to take Mary away in a police jeep to the police station where she was told she was charged with assaulting a police officer. She was however also told that she hadn’t been arrested but would be summoned to appear in court. Mary was released an hour later.
HRWs who spend an extended period of time in Tel Rumeida are regularly targetted by the police. This involves being detained and taken to the police station on trumped up charges before being released after a few hours.
Christmas in Bethlehem this year was the most difficult in memory. This reality probably wouldn’t surprise most Americans who have a general sense of Middle East conflict. However, a survey we commissioned reveals that Americans are ignorant of many other basic facts about Bethlehem. Most Americans cannot identify our town’s location, its inhabitants, or the cause of Bethlehem’s demise according to most of its residents, Israeli military occupation.
Most Americans believe Bethlehem is an Israeli town inhabited by a mixture of Jews and Muslims, according to a nationwide survey by top U.S. pollsters Zogby International. Largely unaware of Bethlehem’s historic community of Palestinian Christians, only 15 percent of Americans realize that Bethlehem is a Palestinian city with a mixed Christian-Muslim community, lying in the occupied West Bank.
The Christians of the Holy Land are known as the Fifth Gospel or The Living Stones of the Church because Christ was born into our community and took his disciples from among our ancestors. Tragically, our community in Bethlehem may not survive another two generations if trends noted in a 2004 United Nations report on Christianity in Bethlehem continue.
Bethlehem has survived because it has remained open to the world, offering hospitality to pilgrims for centuries. This openness is threatened by the Israeli-built concrete wall and electric fences that encircle Bethlehem.
The wall is being built around Bethlehem’s urban core, though at the closet point Bethlehem sits one mile from the Green Line, Israel’s pre-1967 border with the West Bank. The wall separates Bethlehem from neighboring villages and threatens to cut off 70 percent of Bethlehem’s land, thus facilitating the expansion of Israel’s illegal West Bank settlements.
Our lives are intimately bound up, economically and socially, with Jerusalem’s Christian community. Yet the wall and checkpoints prevent us from reaching that city, only 20 minutes away. Bethlehem’s Basilica of the Nativity and Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulcher and their guardian Christian communities have been severed from each other.
The wall has caused a drastic reduction in visiting pilgrims. It has also meant that our livelihoods, dependent on land and water annexed by Israel in the name of security, have shriveled before our eyes, causing a gradual exodus of Palestinian Christians.
Today’s visitors to Bethlehem cannot escape a sense of imprisonment. The town’s geography, a hill surrounded by other hills, means that the 30-foot-high concrete walls and fences, topped by watchtowers, ring the skyline, producing a relentless feeling of claustrophobia.
Americans’ perceptions of these realities are wildly at odds with those of Bethlehem’s residents, according to another poll that we commissioned of 1,000 residents of Bethlehem.
While 78 percent of Bethlehem Christian’s blame the Christian exodus from the town on Israel’s blockade, Americans are more likely (45.9 percent) to blame Islamic politics, and are reluctant (7.4 percent) to blame Israel. And while four in 10 Americans believe the wall exists for Israel’s security, more than nine of 10 Bethlehemites believe its aim is to confiscate Palestinian land.
The Zogby survey suggests many Americans would be surprised that Palestinian Christians and Muslims form a single, multifaith community in Bethlehem. This is perhaps the most important lesson after the incarnation itself that Bethlehem can offer the world. Muslims and Christians here have lived alongside each other for centuries, and, if given the chance, will continue to do so. We are not being squeezed out by Islamism, but by economic hardship resulting from annexation of land, and entrapment behind a wall whose existence shames humanity.
Without sustenance from regular visits by pilgrims, Christianity as a lived faith will be extinguished here, and other centers of faith in the Holy Land may follow. It’s not just the living folk memory of the incarnation that would be lost, but a beacon of hope in the Middle East.
Our poll shows overwhelming American support for Bethlehem’s Christian heritage. Yet our survey of Bethlehem’s citizens shows the city cannot retain this heritage and its Christian community while the wall remains. The strangulation of Bethlehem is forcing Christians to seek livelihoods abroad.
The choice is stark. Either the wall stays and Bethlehem ceases to be a Christian town or Bethlehem retains its Christian population, in which case the wall must come down. Americans need to wake up to what is happening here and choose.
Leila Sansour, a Palestinian Christian from Bethlehem, is the founder and chief executive officer of Open Bethlehem, a nongovernmental foundation established to promote and protect the life and heritage of the city of Bethlehem (www.openbethlehem.org).
1. Breakthrough for Palestinian Human Rights in Tel Rumeida
2. Announcements of Israeli Change of Policy Unfounded in Reality
3. Villagers Unite Against Apartheid Road
4. “Are you Fateh or Hamas?’ – “I am neither”
5. Transcript of BBC World Servce interview with Mary Baxter
6. IOF illegally detain international volunteers for four hours
7. Anarchists Against the Wall block Central Tel Aviv
8. Popular Committee Member shot in Bil’in
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1. Breakthrough for Palestinian Human Rights in Tel Rumeida
by Sam, December 29th
This morning at 10 a.m, three Palestinian residents of the Tel Rumeida District in Hebron accompanied by a handful of Israeli activists and media personnel as well as international volunteers successfully crossed an area off limits to Palestinians for the last six years.
Tel Rumeida falls in the Occupation controlled H2 military zone of Hebron City and is illegally barricaded by the IOF even though there are many Palestinian residents within the area. Access is only available via a checkpoint and Palestinians are not allowed to drive their cars in the zone. The illegal Jewish settlers however, enjoy total freedom of movement and are infamous for their constant harassment and attacks on Palestinians.
A recent Israeli High Court ruling stipulates that the restriction of Palestinian movement in Shuhada street has been mistakenly enforced for the last six years and that Palestinians in fact have the right to use this road. Armed with the court ruling the three men peacefully approached the area and were immediately stopped by an Israeli soldier outside the Beit Hadassah settlement who refused to look at the paper and physically attempted to restrain the Palestinians from bypassing. Five more soldiers then came running up from the checkpoint, soon followed by an army jeep with a few more soldiers. They read the court ruling and then telephoned the Border Police who arrived shortly thereafter.
The soldiers then made the 3 men face and put their hands up against a wall and searched them while the police were on the phone. After approximately 30 minutes the soldiers and police allowed and escorted the Palestinian men as well as the activists through the area to the end of Shuhada Street and agreed that Palestinians shall henceforth be allowed to use this route unhindered by the IOF or settlers.
The three men walked through a street in their own neighbourhood for the first time in six years and the happiness was evident on their faces. This represents a significant breakthrough in the human rights of the local Palestinians and a buzz was soon evident amongst residents in the area as the news spread. All that remains to be seen is if the IOF adhere to the High Court Ruling, and allow the Palestinians the freedom of movement which is now legally theirs.
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2. Announcements of Israeli Change of Policy Unfounded in Reality
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
by the campaign for the Right of Entry
Despite assurances relayed by American and European diplomats, foreign passport holders trying to join their families in the Israeli occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), including Bethlehem, for the holidays are being denied entry and expelled by Israel.
On Friday the 15th edition of the English newspaper, Palestine Times, reported that a senior American diplomat announced that Israel had annulled a previous decision banning entry to foreign passport holders who have family residing in the Palestinian areas and was resuming its earlier practice of issuing three month renewable visas that would allow them to visit and live together with their families. Attempts to understand from US officials more details surrounding this announcement have been unsuccessful, to date.
In stark contrast to that announcement, at least three foreign nationals attempting to join their families in the Israeli occupied Palestinian territory were expelled last week. Kamal, an eighteen-year old US college student who had come to visit his grandfather and family in Ramallah over the holidays was denied entry at Ben Gurion airport on Saturday December 16th. Another Palestinian American from Cleveland, Ohio, Linda Ali Mahmmud, who is deaf and dumb like her brother Shukri, had traveled in the hopes of spending the holidays with her cancer stricken aunt but was denied entry at Ben Gurion airport on Thursday December 14th, allegedly because Shukri had overstayed his permit. Shukri had requested a routine permit renewal in October, however, the Israeli Ministry of Interior liaison at the Israeli Civil Administration suddenly stopped processing renewals for foreigners married to Palestinian ID-holders and refuses to accept Shukri’s application.
Abdullah, a German national, who works for the International Peace & Cooperation Center in Jerusalem, had hopes of reuniting with his wife, who carries a Palestinian ID and their newborn child following statements made last week by European diplomats regarding Israel’s policy change. He was denied entry for the fourth time at the Allenby Bridge on Wednesday the 20th of December.
“Arbitrary denials of entry and expulsions have not stopped. No transparent rules or mechanisms are in place so far. Palestinian families, vital service providers and businesses remain vulnerable to arbitrary denial of entry and residency. This is especially hard to accept at a time of major Christian and Muslim traditional festivities when families want to be together more then ever,” said Anita Abdullah speaking for the Campaign for the Right of Entry to the oPt .
The U.S. government estimates that there are about 35,000 Palestinian Americans living in the West Bank at any one time, and an additional 10,000 Palestinians with other foreign passports. All these people and their families remain separated or at risk, and Palestinian educational and social service institutions, humanitarian agencies and businesses remain vulnerable to the loss of critical personnel, until applications for entry and residency in the oPt are decided in accordance with a clear, transparent and internationally lawful policy.
Contact: Basil Ayish Coordinator, Media Committee
(c) +970-(0)59-817-3953 (email) info@righttoenter.ps
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3. Villagers Unite Against Apartheid Road
by Sam, December 23rd
This afternoon over 200 Palestinian, Israeli and international activists participated in a protest against the proposed new settler-only, apartheid road which will run from the Gush Etzion settlement block to the south and illegally annex Palestinian farmland, affect homes and destroy significant heritage sites including a cemetery in the Halhul and Beit Ommar villages near Hebron in the West Bank. 800 dunums of agricultural land from Beit Ommar and 240 dunums from Halhul is being confiscated for the construction of this road, and four large greenhouses belonging to the agricultural college will be demolished. Part of the road will form a viaduct over the existing “route 60″.
At around 12:30 the crowd marched peacefully from a parking lot outside of Beit Ommar along route “60″ ntowards a nearby agricultural college in Al ‘Arrub Refugee Camp carrying placards and chanting anti occupation slogans. Palestinians as well as Israelis and internationals walked in unity against the illegal plan in the pouring, but long-awaited rain. A small group of Israeli policemen and soldiers were present at the starting and half-way points, but did not interfere in any way.
The crowd then packed into the auditorium upon arrival at the college and were addressed by the mayor of Beit Ommar, a farmer from Halhul and a spokesperson from the Israeli contingent who voiced the support from the Israeli side in favour of the Palestinians who would be affected by the planned road. The locals were highly appreciative of all who supported and stated that it was the largest protest in the area to date.
After listening to the mayor of Beit Ommar, a farmer and spokesman of Halhul and viewing some powerpoint images of the devastating effects of the planned road the crowd peacefully left the college. No soldiers or police were present at the conference and the protest ended without incident. Now all that remains to be seen is if the Israeli authorities heed and respect the non-violent message that was strongly conveyed to them today and change their plans which are illegal even by Israeli Law.
This report was amended on December 24th. For photos visit:
https://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2006/12/23/route60-march/
For Haaretz coverage click here: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/804600.html
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4. “Are you Fateh or Hamas?’ – “I am neither”
by the ISM media team, December 23rd
Last night Israeli forces invaded Ramallah Old City around midnight, occupied a family home, blindfolded the twenty-year old son, banged his head against a door and refused to allow the grandmother suffering from diabetes to use the bathroom.
Several jeeps, a hummer and an APC invaded Hizbe Al Qadim Street in Ramallah Tahta around midnight and demanded entry into a family home by banging with rifle butts on the front door. Forced with complying or having their front door blown open, the family opened and several soldiers were seen entering with large bags. Once inside the soldiers imprisoned the family in one room, blindfolded the son and started interrogating him about his political affiliations as well as banging his head against the door. Soldiers also damaged the walls with rifle butts.
Whilst this was happening other military vehicles continuously shone their searchlights on the windows of neighbouring houses, focusing particularly on one flat. After around an hour the military vehicles left with the soldiers still in the house. Intermittent shooting including automatic gunfire was heard and about an hour later the IOF returned to pick up the occupying soldiers. No one was kidnapped.
In the morning some neighbours identified blood on the walls. This event doesn’t seem to have received any local media coverage, as scenes like these are played out several times nightly across the West Bank.
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5. Transcript of BBC World Servce interview with Mary Baxter
This BBC interview relates to Mary’s arrest in Tel Rumeida on December 17th:
http://switchboard.real.com/player/email.html?PV=6.0.12&&title=Mary%5FBaxter%
https://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2006/12/17/mary-arrest/
Mary: On this occasion some children who were going up at the very top of Tel Rumeida were being stopped from going home from school. For some reason at the top of the hill on private Palestinian land there were a whole lot of settlers having a picnic, a lot of them children. They were being guarded by a number of soldiers. The Palestinian children who were forced to use that way because they are not allowed to go up the street past the Tel Rumeida settlement, and have been told by the army that is the way they’re to go, were not being allowed past to their homes. Now this is against the Israeli law. They rang me because I’ve been there so long and understand the situation and the law to some extent although I’m not a lawyer. The officers are not very keen to talk to me, they expect me to respond to barked orders as though I was some sort of a dog at times but they will not discuss anything with me.
Interviewer: So you protested, you tried time after time to get some official response to what you saw as a breach of Israeli law by stopping these children. What happened eventually?
Mary: The police came. Now the police over the telephone to someone else had already admitted that it was their job to protect the Palestinian children but the police had not come to do so, so I told the police that they were breaking Israeli law if they did not help these Palestinian children get home. They refused to do that. Instead they said I must get in their jeep and they would take me to the police station and when I protested they said they would take me to the police station and come back to look after the Palestinian children but they did not go back and help out in this situation at all, they stayed at the police station.
Interviewer: Mary, you are 75. Why would you, a widower of a former Anglican priest, want to put yourself through this, why would you want to be in that conflict zone.?
Mary: I think it’s a call from God, but in Australia we don’t talk about God much, but that’s what I think it is. The thing that really keeps me there is that Palestinians tell me time and time again that my being there makes a difference to their lives. I do take risks and I go further with the children than either the army or the settlers want me to go.
Interviewer: Have settlers ever attacked you?
Mary: O yes, lots of times. They attack me outside my house. I don’t have to go up near their settlement to be attacked.
Interviewer: And what kind of attack?
Mary: I’ve been knocked over when I’ve been trying to protect children. Just on the 18th November three different settler women punched me when I was trying to stand between them and Palestinian children.
Interviewer: Can you ever get any sense from those settlers who are so angry with you, why they think that there shouldn’t be Palestinians there?
Mary: No, no, what they do if they talk at all rather than scream, is to rant at you. The men rant, very often with a finger right in my face, that I’m not objective but they are free to attack Palestinian children and they are somehow objective. It just makes absolutely no sense.
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6. IOF illegally detain international volunteers for four hours
by ISM Hebron, December 26th
Two international volunteers were illegally detained for over four hours this morning. They were performing a routine visit to Qurtuba School to accompany Palestinian schoolchildren, who face physical violence and harrassment from settler-colonists.
The two volunteers, from South Africa and Spain, were accused of entering a house that was a Closed Military Zone according to the soldiers, although they failed to produce the necessary documentation. The home, now deserted, was once occupied by a Palestinian family that has since left due to the constant and unbearable harassment and abuse by settlers.
The home had been heavily defaced and marked with graffiti. This home is Palestinian property and the volunteers had no idea that this home was ‘out of bounds’.
The soldier that detained them at first, radioed for his superior who arrived almost an hour later and released the volunteers. He did this after inspecting their camera and advising the volunteers not to wander into the abandoned homes.
A few minutes later, the volunteers were detained individually at two separate checkpoints. The reason given for the subsequent detention was, “we were ordered to hold you until our superiors arrive to interrogate you!” It is highly unusual for IOF soldiers to detain foreign nationals as this is usually the responsibility of the police. In this case the police drove past but showed no interest in the incident.
After three hours, a senior army official arrived on the scene but quickly dismissed what was clearly an illegal detention by soldiers. However, the soldiers at the scene only released them an hour later. The volunteers felt that this was just a tactic by the soldiers to discourage them from coming to assist Palestinians living in the area. The cold today made the ordeal even worse for them. But as they said, “This was a lousy experience, but what the Palestinians go through day after day is really awful and much worse.”
Today’s illegal detention is merely the latest example of harrassment by Israeli forces of human rights defenders (HRDs) in Tel Rumeida, stretching back nearly two years when an international presence was first established in Tel Rumeida. On December 17th an Australian HRD was held for four hours whilst settlers trespassed Palestinian land, and a month ago Amnesty International highlighted the risks HRDs face from attack by settlers and the lack of action by Israeli forces.
For photos visit: https://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2006/12/27/tr-illegal-detention/
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7. Anarchists Against the Wall block Central Tel Aviv
Israeli activists have blocked central Tel Aviv with razor wire from the Apartheid Wall. The activists stretched the razor wire across Basel Street with a sign from the Wall that reads in Arabic, Hebrew and English: “Mortal Danger-Military Zone. Any person who passes or damages the fence endangers his life”.
The twenty activists from Anarchists Against the Wall, who attend the weekly Friday demonstrations against the Apartheid Wall in Bil’in, set up the blockade at around 2pm and started handing out flyers to passers by explaining the action.
The action was taken to protest the Apartheid Wall being built through the West Bank, as well as severe travel restrictions on Palestinians. The leaflets remind Israelis that they bear responsibility for the suffering of Palestinians as a result of their government’s apartheid
policies.
For details contact Yonaton Pollack: 0546327736
For photos contact Oren: 0523767272
For photos visit: https://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2006/12/28/telaviv-blockade/
For YNet coverage click here: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3345850,00.html
For Haaretz coverage click here: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/807023.html
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8. Popular Committee Member shot in Bil’in
by the ISM media team, December 29th
The IOF shot rubber-coated steel bullets at Bil’in Popular Committee Member Abdullah Abu Rahme, wounding him twice in different parts of the leg. The soldier took aim and fired the bullets from less than 50 metres away at Abu Rahme’s leg after today’s peaceful demo against the Apartheid Wall in Bil’in.
A larger than usual number of villagers participated in today’s protest on the eve of the Eid Al Adha feast. After marching to the gate in the wall, marchers passed between the gate and razor wire, which forms the first barrier in the wall. Soldiers clambered over the gate, a task made more difficult by the razor wire across the gate put there by the IOF, and tried to close off the opening.
By this time the many protesters who had passed through, started walking along the ridge between the razor wire and the next obstacle in the wall formed by a three-meter high fence. Some looked for ways of scaling the illegal structure.
Those left on the other side of the razor wire managed to find openings in it, and some reached the group protesting on the ridge despite the multiple rounds of sound bombs fired by the IOF.
As the protesters reached the outskirts of the village they noticed soldiers in two empty houses and urged them to leave. The soldiers vacated one house but remained in the other despite requests from the villagers to leave.
When the villagers entered the house the soldiers started lashing out at them with their batons causing cuts and bruises to arms and legs. Popular Committeee member Mohammed Katib and Farhad Burnat were among those beaten by the soldiers. Snipers occupying a nearby roof fired teargas at those in the vicinity of the house. Instead of leaving, the IOF invaded with several jeeps and soldiers started firing rubber bullets at protesters. Abu Rahme was shot as he was sitting on the ground by the house occupied by soldiers.
Today’s demo was characterized by an escalation in IOF violence compared to recent weeks.
For photos visit: https://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2006/12/29/bilin-29-12-06/
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For more reports, journals and action alerts visit the ISM website at www.palsolidarity.org
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