Tomorrow, August 11, 2006, at 1pm the people of Bil’in will conduct another demonstration against the wall and war crimes Israel is committing daily in Lebanon and Gaza. With the support of Israelis and internationals they will carry five coffins with fake, bloodied bodies inside representing a family of one mother, one father and three children. The coffins will read: “The New Style of Killing, but the Israeli Way”, referring to how the Israeli army not only kills the fathers, but the mothers and children as well.
The Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements has organized weekly demonstrations since January 2005. Throughout their struggle Israelis and internationals have been supportive in resisting army incursions into the village, imposed curfew, and the wall that has estranged them from 60% of their farmland.
For more information:
Mohammed Katib 054 557 3285
Abudullah Abu Rahma 054 725 8210
A woman from Sweden, Gabby, and a man from Austria, Sebastian, were kicked, pushed, jumped on, and bitten by settlers while they walked on Palestinian farmland the evening of August 8th.
The internationals live in Suseya in order to accompany farmers to their land, provide support for the community, and prevent attacks from settlers. They were living in a valley where eight Palestinian families live, and staked their tent on the Palestinian-owned land nearest to the Israeli settlement of Suseya.
At about 7pm on the 8th, two internationals and one Palestinian were confronted by two Israeli settlers, with their sheep at first. One of the settlers began yelling and charged at the internationals and the Palestinian. The settler attacked the internationals by kicking and pushing, as the internationals attempted to document the attack. The settler and the internationals both backed away, but the internationals noticed that the settler was calling for others.
Soon after, six additional settlers (two of whom were armed with guns), and one Israeli soldier appeared. Three settlers jumped on the Austrian man, grabbing his camera. The settlers grabbed the Austrian man by the throat, hit and pushed him. They kicked him in the back and another settler bit him on his hand. While the Austrian man was pinned to the ground, the Swedish woman appealed for help from the Israeli soldier, who appeared to be escorting the settlers. The soldier responded in English, “I don’t speak English.”
The settlers managed to steal the video camera that contained the footage of the first attack, before retreating. The internationals called the police to file a report, and while the police initially agreed to meet, they later claimed that they were unable to find the area and did not respond.
“I have to admit, I am really scared,” said the Austrian man. “I mean, there is no law here, it is just gang violence and I don’t know what those people want, or what they will do to me.”
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Direct action against the war, Ramat David Israeli Air Forces base, 8/8/06, Israel
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Today, August 8th, tens of leftist Israeli activists are blocking the road to the Israeli air force Ramat David area, close to Haifa. Police have already arrested more than ten activists.
The group issued a press release stating their motives which is translated below:
The international law requires of every human being the duty of resistance to war crimes using every possible means. At this moment, when the rockets are falling, the war crimes are committed, the victims buried, it is time to fight to stop the war.
The activists are carrying a clear message: Stop civilian killings; Stop the war crimes; Stop the Israeli government criminal policies.
It is the duty of every soldier to refuse to serve orders which are war crimes. The support by the Israeli people of this criminal government means they are participants in committing these war crimes.
The number of dead is continuously increasing. The attacks by Israeli air force are planting death, destruction and hate. In Palestine, the occupation continues killing and torturing Palestinians. The civilians of Northern Israel are used as human shields and are paying their lives as a price to serve the ego of generals who are even unable to acknowledge failure and defeat.
The war crimes are committed everyday, hundreds of kids have been killed. The number of those killed is over a thousand. There are tens of thousands of injured and over one million refugees and Israel continues the air strikes, the killing, the destruction, and the annihilation in order to prove who is powerful in the region.
We repeat and we say what is known for everyone; there is no military solution. We are calling on the Israeli government and its people to wake up and behave in a moral way.
We must stop the war machine and the destruction. we demand an immediate ceasefire, an exchange of prisoners, and the release the political prisoners in Israel.
for more information:
0544 486 667
052 355 4815
0546 327 736
writing from Shatila refugee camp, Beirut, Electronic Lebanon, 6 August 2006
My name is Usama Abu el-Sheikh, and I am from Tabaria, Palestine. I am of course a refugee and have never been to my hometown in Palestine though I learned about it from my grandparents and I read some books about it. I have never been to Tabaria, but I am Tabarian, and will remain so, as I am from Shatila too and will remain so. Although I always dreamt of corresponding with my country and my hometown to see if I still have relatives there, I was unable to because there is no mail between Lebanon and the State of Israel. Ironically, only the missiles of Hizbullah can be sent to Israel. We are not allowed to return, but the missiles go where we cannot. But how can you send love to Tabaria with a missile?
I am nineteen now, and I grew up in Shatila camp. As a child I wanted to be many things, sometimes a doctor, other times an engineer or a journalist. As a child, you know, I could dream whatever I wanted to and I wanted to be many things. As I was growing up though, my dreams started to be hit by my reality, by my being a refugee in Lebanon where we have no civil rights. Being the oldest son of a widowed mother with seven children and no one to care for after the death of my dad when I was just seven years old, I lived a real struggle inside. My father’s words as he was on his death bed asking me to “care for the family” are words that keep echoing in my head. I got to be the “man of the household” without choosing it, without knowing it. As a child, it was ok, but as I was getting to be a teenager, I wanted always to fulfill this responsibility, always. I was not able to stand the fact that I’m not fulfilling my responsibility as the head of the household. My mum, like all Palestinian mothers, wanted me to get my education. For her it was the way to help the family out, because the identity “educated” is kind of a compensation of our lost identity as Palestinians — not lost in terms of our own feelings but in terms of how the world deals with us. It was hard to focus though, especially because I couldn’t see a future. How could I be a doctor in a country where we have no rights? So I left school, and now I work in a telephone calling shop in the camp.
Maybe you are wondering why I am writing to you about my personal life at a time of war. I just wanted to express that this war reinforced my ideas that what we need is a collective solution for everyone, not individual solutions such as are offered here and there. Just as being “educated” will not replace my loss of identity, a solution for Palestine, separate from Lebanon or Syria or Iraq is not going to be possible. I sit in the camp and think about how much effort is put to separate us all from each other. And now we have the F-16s over our heads joining us together all in one camp. I do not mean Shatila camp, but a much bigger camp for all those whose lives are cheap in this world, the camp of those who die like bugs, the camp for those on whom they test their weapons. As proud as I am of Lebanon’s resistance, I do not think I will be returning to Palestine soon. I will keep sending my love to my hometown in Palestine. I know that the world never hears our cries. But they do hear the roar of the missiles. Can you send love on a missile?
A woman waits after a long line for soldier to approve her passing
by Woody, Miss J and Ernesto
There is continual harrassment and human rights abuses at Beit Iba checkpoint, northwest of Nablus, which connects the largest city in the West Bank to Tulkarem and Jenin. Students and patients travelling in ambulances are routinely stopped, as human rights workers witnessed yesterday, August 7th. One international travelling through the checkpoint was also arrested, apparently for taking pictures.
Human rights workers monitoring the checkpoint reported that three students of Al Najah University were detained by Isaeli soldiers, which means that they were pulled out of line and put into a pen surrounded by razor wire until their name was cleared. It is necessary for these young men to travel through this checkpoint daily in order to attend the university.
There were an additional 15 men detained between 20 minutes and 3 hours. They reported to the internationals that they are detained almost daily because the last four digits of their ID numbers are the same as those of “wanted” individuals (meaning the Israeli army wants to arrest or assasinate these people). Some soldiers acknowledged that these men, many of whom are students, cross the Beit Iba checkpoint daily and are known to not be “wanted”. However, they still could not explain why these men are detained regularly nonetheless.
Ambulances with their lights on were stopped at the vehicle crossing and required to provide documentation and undergo a rigorous inspection in order to clear the checkpoint and transport their patient to the nearest hospital.
The human rights workers spoke with the soldiers on duty and negotiated the crossing of several men across the checkpoint, despite official military orders that no men between the ages of 15 to 35 are allowed to cross under any circumstances. The Israeli authorities claim that it is a security risk to allow men of this age group to cross the checkpoint.
An international woman from Sweden, not working with the group monitoring the checkpoint, but on a tour with a group to Jenin, was arrested. The group noticed a Palestinian man being arrested although he had on a leg brace and said he was on the way to the hospital. She asked the soldiers why he was being held and took some photos after which the soldiers told her to stop or they would call the police. They passed the checkpoint and went to get food and water. When they returned the police had arrived and directly targeted the international who took pictures. The police were very aggressive and informed her that a soldier had filed a complaint against her, which justified her arrest.
The police took her to Qedumim settlement police station and then Ariel settlement police station and threatened to deport her. They asked her to sign papers agreeing she will stay out of the West Bank. She reported that,”They tried to bribe me with offers of ‘only being excluded from Nablus’. I said I wanted to move about freely: ‘Is Israel not a democracy?’ I said. They finally let me go with no papers being signed.”
