International Solidarity Movement - Page 239 - Nonviolence. Justice. Freedom.

Ni’lin filled with tear gas during demonstration against continued loss of land and isolation

11th April 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah Team | Ni’lin, Occupied Palestine

Israeli forces began firing tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets even before Friday’s protest had begun, as the people of Ni’lin were gathering near the local school to begin their march against the Apartheid Wall and continued loss of land.

The protest was initially divided into two. Israeli forces confronted protestors on one side, while townspeople were sneaking behind the military on the other side, attempting to reach the Apartheid Wall without being noticed. Once there, the Palestinian protesters, accompanied by Israeli and other international activists, gathered tinder and rubber tires, attempting to set fire to sections of the wall. The hope was that the heat created by the flames then being extinguished with water could create a rapid change in temperatures and lead to a crack in the concrete wall. Two soldiers discovered the smoke and immediately rushed to the scene, firing tear gas to disperse the protesters.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Evidence of attempts to create cracks in the Apartheid Wall by burning rubber

Massive amounts of tear gas reaches the village
Suffering from tear gas inhalation, the two groups of protesters were then forced up towards the village, were they met and reunited to continue their demonstration. The retreat was only disrupted by protesters running into the wheat fields to extinguish a fire caused by the tear gas grenades.

Activists extinguishing a fire caused by tear gas grenades

Israeli forces then marched aggressively towards the protesters and launched massive amounts of tear gas. One international activist reported tear gas grenades passing centimeters from her head. Occupying forces fired several rounds of rubber-coated steel bullets and protesters retreated back to a near by abandoned house, which left them somewhat entrapped, before an escape route was found.

The Israeli military, with their overpowering arsenal of weaponry against unarmed protesters, successfully ended the demonstration, as tear gas grenades came alarmingly close to inhabited houses, where young children were out playing and women were doing their laundry. «We don’t want to continue our protest when it gets too close to the village, as we have a long history of soldiers eventually invading and raiding the entire village», local Palestinian activist Saeed Amireh said. «Anyway, we will be back again next Friday. Right now I’m just sorry to have heard the soldiers talking with each other in Arabic as they moved in on us», another local Palestinian activist added.

The isolation of Ni’lin

Ni’lin and surrounding villages lost an estimated 40.000 out of a total of 58.000 dunums (equivalent to 580 hectares) of land following Al-Nakba in 1948, while an additional 8.000 dunums was lost during the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in 1967 and the subsequent creation of the Kirgat Sefer, Mettetyaho and Makabbem settlements. With the building of the Apartheid Wall to the west of the town and an Israeli military camp to the south, Ni’lin has seen another 2.500 dunums stolen. Together, only 7.500 dunums of land are left for the population of Ni’lin, which today inhabits approximately 5.000 people. Compared to “normal” growth rates of Palestinian cities, the population of Ni’lin should have been five times higher than it is today, but continued displacements and unemployment – which might be as high as 60 percent, according to unofficial estimates – have left the town without any significant growth since the Al-Nakba.

Today, Ni’lin is threatened by an approved construction of a tunnel beneath the town, which will be running under the segregated settler-only road and replace the town`s main entrance. The main aim of the tunnel is to impose total Israeli control of movement in and out of the city, but also to further separate Palestinians from their land and to destroy the local economy. Upon completion, Ni’lin and close-by villages will be surrounded by settlements and turned into a virtual prison.

Anti-barrier protests met with continued extreme violence
Protests in Ni’lin have a long history of being met with extreme violence from Israeli forces, with the shooting of a ten-year old boy in 2008 standing out as the most striking example. Since then, several more have been shot and killed or wounded. Additionally, the repression techniques in the army have often been spraying people with a mix of weak sewage water, animal manure and chemicals known as “skunk,” due to its strong smell, with vomiting as a result.

Friday’s protest left no one injured, despite the massive amount of tear gas and firing of rubber-coated steel bullets. However, evidence of Israeli violence was there, as the 16-year-old boy who was shot in the head last week was back at the forefront of the protest with a bandage around his head and a Palestinian flag in his hand.

Successful olive tree planting action in Bruqin

4th April 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Salfit Region, Occupied Palestine

On 4th April 2015 over 25 Palestinian activists from Bruqin and the surrounding area of Salfit region of the West Bank, gathered on top of a near by hill to plant roughly 30 olive saplings. The group were joined by international activists who accompanied the locals in planting the young trees across the hill side.

Unusually, this time the protesters managed to successfully plant all trees mere meters from the settlement without facing harassment or violence from settlers or military. Locals are planning further actions to continue their grass-roots non-violent struggle.

Activists digging in Bruqin (photo by ISM) — Activists preparing for olive tree planting in Bruqin (photo by ISM)

Today’s tree planting was an act of resistance against the expansion of Ariel West Industrial Park, an illegal Israeli settlement originally colonized by Israel in 1999. As in the rest of the West Bank, this settlement growth is causing daily life of Palestinians in the villages of Bruqin and Kufr al-Dik to steadily deteriorate. Land is progressively being confiscated for settlement growth, sewage from settlements flows freely onto Palestinian owned land, including between the village houses. Despite plentiful water resources, water for the Palestinians is highly restricted. There is not nearly enough land to support Palestinian population growth.

To the north of the villages is the settlement of Bruchin, to the north west are Alei Zahav and Lesham, to the north east is Ariel, to the west is the Industrial Zone, and to the South-West Peduel settlement. This illegal expansion is referred to by some as the ‘long finger of the occupation’; it’s aim is to divide the occupied West Bank in two halves, separating Nablus from Ramallah. Ariel West forms part of the “Ariel Finger”- a zone of settlements stretching from the 1948 Green Line towards the Jordan Valley. If completed, this settlement area would cut the West Bank in half. Salfit, Nablus and Jenin would be separated from the southern West Bank.

Areas in and around illegal Israeli settlements are classified as “Area C” under the Oslo Agreement. Palestinians who own land in area C are banned from doing almost any work or making any changes on their land. They can neither plant a tree, nor move a stone; if they do, the Israeli military will come and order them to return the land back to its original state or face demolition. At the same time if the land is not worked on for three years Israel will confiscate it using an old Ottoman law. In almost all such cases, the land confiscated from Palestinians would be handed over to illegal settlements.

By planting trees in the shadow of Ariel West settlement, Palestinians are reaffirming their ownership of the land in the face of the Occupation.

Four people shot in the first 5 minutes at Nabi Saleh protest

3rd April 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah Team | Nabi Saleh, Occupied Palestine

The weekly Friday protest in Nabi Saleh was met with extreme violence by Israeli Occupation Forces. Four people were shot in the first five minutes of the protest. One man and one woman were shot and wounded by snipers using .22 caliber live ammunition. Both were shot in the leg. Two others, including a 14 year old girl, were later hit with rubber bullets. 6 more hours of protest saw two more injured protesters, private homes attacked with stun grenades, and live fire from M16 assault rifles during the army’s invasion of the Nabi Saleh village.

Protesters march in Nabi Saleh (photo by ISM) — Protesters begin their march in Nabi Saleh (photo by ISM)

After midday prayer Palestinians and internationals gathered for a peaceful protest against the Israeli occupation in the village of Nabi Saleh. Villagers in Nabi Saleh are protesting against the confiscation of their community spring, taken by Halamish settlement in 2008. As the protest made it down the main road leading out of the village it was very violently attacked by Israeli occupation forces:

“We had very little warning. We had only been protesting for 5 minutes before two people were on the ground, shot with .22 caliber live ammunition,” reported an International Solidarity Movement volunteer at the scene.

X-ray photo showing the shattered bone caused by a .22 caliber bullet (photo ISM)

A young man named Hammad from Al Am’ari Refugee Camp near Ramallah, and Manal Tammimi, a woman from Nabi Saleh, were both shot. In both cases the live bullets tore through their shin bones and they were immediately taken to the hospital. Medics on the scene say their injuries will take several months to heal and then only if no complications arise.

Children in the line of fire
A rubber bullet struck a fourteen year old Palestinian girl in the head. The girl is a native of Nabi Saleh village and medics say she was lucky to not be more severely injured.

Home invasions and M16 live ammunition
After the initial attack the protest changed location to a hill on the west side of the village of Nabi Saleh. This time the army responded by invading the village itself. Soldiers shot tear gas down the village streets and stun grenades in private houses. At one point an entire Palestinian family including around 5 children had to flee their home with severe tear gas poisoning after the army shot tear gas canisters into their back yard and the nerve gas spread through the windows.

The military shot with M16s (firing 5.56 NATO rounds) down the narrow streets of the village. “People were shouting to be careful of stray bullets and ducking behind anything that might pass for cover. Being shot at by M16 machine gun fire at a completely peaceful protest that even includes children is both absurd and extreme,” recalled one international activist on the scene.

International activists confronts soldiers (photo by ISM) — Activists confront Israeli soldiers during Friday’s protest (photo by ISM)

Israeli occupation forces are escalating violence on the West Bank
The injuries in Nabi Saleh today and the use of lethal weapons are novelty. In both the villages of N’ilin and Kafr Kadum the Friday demonstration were also met with shots of M16 live ammunition. Internationals present in occupied Palestine report that the use of lethal weapons has never ceased since the massacre on Gaza last summer. In fact, they say the level of violence used by the Occupation, including both .22 and the much more lethal 5.56 live ammunition, is escalating.

Video by Anarchists Against the Wall

VIDEO: Israel forces once again open fire at Palestinian farmers in Gaza

3rd April, 2015 | Miguel Hernández | Khuza’a, Gaza, Occupied Palestine

As soon as we arrived at the land where the farmers wanted to work, about 80 meters from the zionist fence which borders and cuts of the Gaza Strip, an Israeli occupation military jeep stopped in front of us. A group of soldiers left the car and started shooting while cowardly hiding behind a sand mound. From the first moment we used our speaker to let the soldiers know that there were just farmers working, that we were all civilians. After staying there for a few minutes shooting and shouting bad words to the farmers, such as “sharmuta” (bitch), they jumped again on the jeep and left.

Some people from the village came to ask the farmers to go home; they said it was too dangerous. The farmers didn’t listen and luckily they could finish their work without more trouble.

When we were almost done another family approached us and asked if one of us could go with them to a piece of land they have near where we were, at about 50 meters from the fence. We said yes and one of us left with them. The family were terrified the entire time, repeatedly asking us if there would be no problems. We could only tell, that hopefully not.

militarytower — Israeli Zionist military tower overlooking the farm fields of Khuza’a – photo by Rina Andolini

Once all the work was done and we were leaving the land, two of the youngest farmers explained to us how the father of one of them was killed in the last aggression, along with the brother of the other. They were killed by a rocket along with 4 other people.

During all the journey we could see, on the far side of the fence, the farmers from the nearby kibbutz working peacefully with their modern vehicles, tractors and even airplanes, while the Palestinian farmers locked in Gaza have to work only with their hands, almost lying in the ground, hiding from the zionist bullets and wondering if they will get killed today.

In less than two months the harvest season will commence, and hundreds of peasants will leave their homes ready to risk their lives in their attempts to harvest the crops that are supposed to feed their families. This year they are more afraid than ever, due to the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip by Israel and Egypt. It has been impossible to enter Gaza for most of the international activists that would accompany them and serve as witnesses and protective presence.

khuzaa farmland wm — Farmlands early in the morning in Khuza’a, Gaza – photo by Rina Andolini

Home demolition in Jerusalem: “They want our land. We need help to protect it.”

1st April 2015 | Jerusalem, Occupied Palestine

Nureddin Amro and his brother Sharif Amro and their families were awakened at 5:30 am by over a hundred Israeli soldiers who came to demolish their home in the Wadi Al-Joz neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem on Tuesday, March 31, 2015. Both men are blind. The brothers live with their ill 79-year-old mother, their spouses and children. Nureddin has three young children, Sharif has four; all are under 14. Israeli soldiers pointed their guns in through the windows of the house while the children were still asleep and cut the electricity and phone lines to the house.

“We were asleep. They banged on the doors and shouted. Soldiers completely surrounded the neighborhood. There were dogs and aircraft. It was frightening,” said Nureddin. “There was no advanced notice. No reason given. They announced that they came to demolish the house and they started doing it while we were still inside.”

Amro Wadi Joz wm — The Amro family stands in the rubble of their demolished home

Nureddin asked for time to go to court or the municipality for an explanation, but the soldiers refused. The soldiers assaulted the family, kicking Sharif and beating everyone, including the women and children. “They attacked us and locked us in one of the rooms. My son and brother were injured. They stayed for four hours and destroyed four rooms, the garden. They would not give us time to take anything from the rooms. All of our things, the children’s pets, their rabbits and chickens were killed under the rubble” Sharif was taken to the hospital after a soldier kicked the blind man hard in the ankle. Israeli forces refused to even let the family salvage their belongings before they tore it down.

Amro famil wmy — Members of the Amro family gathered beside the part of their home that is still standing

Nurredin is the founder and principal of the Siraj al-Quds School for visually impaired and sighted children in Jerusalem. He is a Synergos Institute Social Innovator and was recognized by the British Council for his leadership working for positive change and social development for people with special needs. According to Nureddin, there was no demolition order against the homes although there have been demolitions in the neighborhood before. They had received warnings a couple of months ago to clean up scrap wood, wires and materials that were around the house, and they did the cleaning as required.

While they were demolishing the rooms of the Amro family’s home Israeli forces destroyed a fence on the neighboring Totah family’s land, along with a shelter that housed a horse, chickens, and a dog. Soldiers also cut the family’s internet and broke the water line. The father of the Totah family was beaten, handcuffed, and arrested; he was later released.

Totah family land wm — The Totah family’s land after Israeli forces destroyed a fence and a shelter for animals

As of this writing, the part of the house that remains standing where Nureddin and his brother are staying with their families; still has no electricity, water, sewage or telephone services. Soldiers returned to the family’s home again this morning, moving the rubble that was visible from the street and threatening that they would be back.

Amro children wm — The Amro family children climb on the rubble – all that is left of four of their rooms

Israeli authorities have already annexed land across from the Wadi Al-Joz neighborhood, creating a national park which encompasses an illegal Israeli settlement. Local residents reported, speaking of the constant threat of settlement expansion under the Israeli occupation, that “they want to get rid of all the houses, all the neighborhood. They want to put their hands on this land from here to the Old City.”