Israeli forces raid West Bank village of Bil’in, arresting 7 Palestinians and 1 American solidarity activist

For Immediate Release

3 August 2009: Israeli forces raid West Bank village of Bil’in, arresting 7 Palestinians and 1 American solidarity activist.

At around 3am on Monday morning, a large military force wearing combat paint and masks invaded Bil’in. Israeli soldiers raided several homes, arresting 2 Palestinian children, 5 Palestinian adults including Mohammad Khatib of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements and an American national.

The home of another member of the Popular Committee was raided, but soldiers could not arrest him because he was not present at home.

Monday’s raid is another in a series of many that Israeli forces have carried out in Bil’in since June.

Since 29 June 2009, Israeli forces have arrested 25 people (most are under 18), of which 18 are currently being held in detention.
Israeli forces have been using interrogation techniques to pressure the arrested youth to give statements against Bil’in community leaders. Forces then arrest community leaders, several of which are being held without bail for the duration of their trial.

On 21 July 2009, a military judge decided to hold Adeeb Abu Rahma, a leading non-violent activist that was arrested from a demonstration against the barrier that took place in Bil’in village on 10 of July (see video at: https://palsolidarity.org/2009/07/7652), until the end of proceedings against him. This could mean months or a year in military prison for Adeeb, who is being charged with incitement to violence and rioting. He is the sole provider for his family of 9 children, wife and mother.

Abdullah Abu Rahme, coordinator of the popular committee stated,

Mohmmad Khatib and Adib Abu Rahme along with other leaders of the Palestinian popular struggle are being targeted because the mobilize Palestinians to resist non violently. The fact is that the Apartheid Wall and the settlements built on Palestinian land are illegal under international law, in the case of our village even the biased Israeli court declared the route illegal. Yet Israel is prosecuting us as criminals because we struggle nonviolently for our freedom.

The Palestinian village of Bil’in has become an international symbol of the Palestinian popular struggle. For almost 5 years, its residents have been continuously struggling against the de facto annexation of more then 50% of their farmlands the construction of the apartheid wall on it. In a celebrated decision, the Israeli Supreme court ruled on the 4 September 2007 that the current route of the wall in Bil’in was illegal and needs to be dismantled; the ruling however has not been implemented.

One demonstrator, Basem Abu Rahma, was killed at a demonstration as he was attempting to speak with the soldiers. (see video at: https://palsolidarity.org/2009/04/6185)

US condemns evicition of east J’lem families

Efrat Weiss | YNet News

3 August 2009

Some 200 leftists, including Arabs and Jews, protested the eviction of Palestinian families from their homes in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Clashes broke out between the demonstrators and security forces, and 13 people were arrested.

Israeli police evicted two Palestinian families, then allowed Jewish settlers to move into their homes, drawing criticism from Palestinians, the United Nations and the State Department.

Police arrived before dawn and cordoned off part of the Arab neighborhood before forcibly removing more than 50 people, said Chris Gunness, spokesman for the UN agency in charge of Palestinian refugees.

UN staff later saw vehicles bringing Jewish settlers to move into the homes, he said.

Israeli police cited a ruling by the country’s Supreme Court that the houses belonged to Jews and that the Arab families had been living there illegally.

Gunness said the families had lived in the homes for more than 50 years.

US State Department spokeswoman Megan Mattson said in response to the eviction that such actions in east Jerusalem constitute violations of Israel’s obligations under US-backed “Road Map” peace plan.

“Unilateral actions taken by either party cannot prejudge the outcome of negotiations and will not be recognized by the international community,” she said in a statement.

Robert Serry, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, called the evictions “totally unacceptable.”

“These actions heighten tensions and undermine international efforts to create conditions for fruitful negotiations to achieve peace,” he said in a statement.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat also condemned the move.

“While Israeli authorities have promised the American administration that home demolitions, home evictions and other provocations against Palestinian Jerusalemites would be stopped, what we’ve seen on the ground is completely the opposite,” he said in a statement.

Khawla Hanoun, 35, who lived in one of the homes, said police ordered her and 16 family members to leave the house before dawn and forced them out at gunpoint when they refused.

“Now our future is in the streets,” she said. “We will remain steadfast until we return home. By any method, we must go back home.”

Israeli forces raid Bil’in, arrest eight

Bil’in Popular Committee

3 August 2009

At 3am, the occupation forces invaded the village of Bil’in. A total of some 200 soldiers with combat paint in their faces and masks entered the village on foot at several points of entry. 5 homes were raided and a total of 8 people were arrested, 7 Palestinians and one international activist from the United States.

The arrested Palestinians are: the three brothers Khaled Show gut Abd-Alrazic al-Khateeb (age 23), Mustafa Show gut Abd-Alrazic al-Khateeb (age18), and Mohammed Show gut Abd-Alrazic al-Khateeb (age 16); Abdullah Ahmad Yassen (age 18); Abdullah Mohammed Ali Yassen (age 16); Issa Mahmoud Issa Abu Rahma (age 40); Mohammed Abdulkarim Mustafa Khatib (age 35). One of the the popular committee leaders .

The occupation forces threw sound bombs to disperse the villagers who were coming into the streets at day-break throwing rocks at the arriving Jeeps and the soldiers that were still partly disguised from the night. The Jeeps then parked at various locations with their engines running until the end of the operation at 6:45am.

The Popular Committee of Bil’in has asked the Human Rights Committee to assist with both the release of the arrested people and the request that the Israeli Army stop the night raids.

Israeli soldiers harass Susiyan herder

1 August 2009

Yesterday while grazing his sheep, a Palestinian shepherd in Suseya near Yatta, was harrassed and threatened by two Israeli soldiers from a nearby military outpost. Jamal suffers daily from this type of harrassment on his own land. The soldiers forced him off his own land.

Shortly before Jamal was due to take his sheep grazing in the afternoon as he always does, two Israeli soldiers appeared from their post on the hill overlooking the land that is used by a number of families. They were clearly agitated and started shouting and throwing stones about even before the grazing started. As Jamal approached the area that the Israelis no longer let him use, the soldiers marched down the hill with their guns in their hands. There was a very heated debate in which the Palestinian was abused and threatened with being shot.The ISM observers were told that they didn’t know who they were protecting. Jamal continued to allow his sheep to graze for a while which produced a second out burst in which he was told he was now on Israeli land. One of the soldiers claimed to be Tunisian in background. The other at one point found the whole incident amusing and was laughing at the plight of Jamal, though he did get very aggressive when the shepherd’s dog barked at him and threatened to shoot the dog. Eventually Jamal was forced to move his sheep.

Suseya is a community of a small number of families totaling about 400 people near Hebron displaced from their original village of cave dwellings in 1986 by the Israelis and the land they now occupy is close to a settlement declared illegal under international law. They have been moved several times and prevented from building permanent dwellings so they now live in tents. There have been a number of attacks and harassment from settlers from the nearby settlement and the Israeli army on them aimed at driving them from their land and keeping them away from the local settlement. They cannot use the main road to Yatta even in medical emergency and this makes the journey nearly half an hour despite being only a few kilometeres away by the direct route. They are not allowed to use water from their own wells so water has to be brought in by lorry. In contrast, the local settlement has full running water, so much that it can be piped underground to their vines.

Footnote: the harrassment continued this morning, with a solitary soldier harassing young children tending the sheep again forcing them off their own land

Israel evicts Palestinian families

Al Jazeera

2 August 2009

Israeli security forces have forcibily evicted two Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem after a court rejected an appeal against their eviction.

The al-Ghawi and al-Hanoun families who were evicted on Sunday have been living in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood since 1956.

Israel has reportedly set aside the land their houses were built on for a planned hotel project.

The eviction comes amid international calls for Israel to halt settlement activity on occupied Palestinian land.

A large police force was involved in the operation in Sheikh Jarrah, one of the most sensitive and upmarket Arab neighbourhoods closest to the so-called Green Line which separates east and west Jerusalem.

Violent ‘scuffles’

Sherine Tadros, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in East Jerusalem, said: “According to the Hanoun family, the members that I have spoken to, at about 6am as they were sleeping inside the house, Israeli police officers broke in and we can see the shattered glass all over the floor outside.

“They say that the police were armed and they forcibly evicted both the international activists that were staying at the house and members of the family themselves.

“Members of the family say the police officers beat them with batons and children as young as six were man-handled … scuffles were seen and heard between the police and the two families trying to get back into their houses,” she said.

Tadros said the international activists were arrested and personal items belonging to the families such as cameras, laptops and computers have all been confiscated.

‘Blatant violation of law’

Residents of the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in East Jerusalem, composed of 28 Palestinian families, held a press conference on May 6 in order to raise awareness regarding the Israeli District Court decision to issue an ultimatum to the al-Ghawi and al-Hanoun families giving them 10 days to evacuate their homes or face punitive measures, including forcible expulsion.

Maher Hanoun, one of 53 family members of the two families affected by the court decision said in a statement: “The al Ghawi and al Hanoun cases are part of an ongoing attempt by the two Jewish settler organisations to take over 28 housing units built in 1956 to house refugees and to turn it into a Jewish colony.

“Israel’s measures against the two families constitute blatant violations of international law including the 4th Geneva Convention that obligates the occupying authorities, Israel, to maintain the geographic and demographic characteristics of occupied East Jerusalem,” he said.

Hanoun appealed to the “international community, human rights organisations, and the EU to exert pressure on Israel to stop it from pursuing its plan to ethnically cleanse Jerusalem of its Palestinian population”.

In 1982, Israeli settler organisations began demanding rent from the Palestinian families of Sheikh Jarrah, who at that point had been living in the neighbourhood for almost 30 years – and when many of the families refused to pay this rent, the first eviction orders were issued.

The legal proceedings continued over the years, and in 2006 it was ruled by court that the settler organisations did not have rights to the land, and the Israeli land registration department agreed to revoke the settler associations’ ownership.

Settlement expansion

Despite pending appeals and the lack of legal ownership of land in the neighbourhood, the settler organisations sold their property claim in 2008 to an investment company that plans to demolish the 28 Palestinian homes and build 200 settlement units for new Jewish immigrants.

Settlements have emerged as a sticking point in relations between Israel and US [File: EPA]
Further reports state that two additional construction plans being currently reviewed by the Jerusalem municipality would create an additional 150 housing units, for a total of 350 new housing units for Israelis, as well as a synagogue in Sheikh Jarrah.

Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian negotiator, said: “If the Israeli prime minister continues with settlement activities, he will undermine the efforts to revive the peace process.”

Although Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, recently yielded to US pressure to conditionally endorse the establishment of a Palestinian state, he has consistently resisted US demands for a total freeze on settlement expansion.

Israel annexed East Jerusalem and declared the whole city its capital after the 1967 Six Day War, a move not recognised by the international community.