Ni’lin demonstrates against the Apartheid Wall

31 July 2009

At 1 pm, after the Friday prayer, approximately 75 protesters internationals  and Israeli activist joined the inhabitants of Ni’lin  in their weekly demonstration against the illegal Apartheid wall which Israel has built on Ni’lin land. The demonstration walked along one of the roads from the village towards the wall. When the demonstration reached the area around the fence, soldiers immediately responded with excessive use of  teargas.  The demonstration spread out on the field and the youths responded  towards the grenades with stonethrowing.  Despite the heavy use of teargas,  sound bombs and chemical water, the Palestinan flag was held up high in the  wind as a symbol for the free Palestine.

It ended at 3 pm.

Israeli forces commonly use tear-gas canisters, rubber coated steel bullets and live ammunition against demonstrators.

To date, Israeli occupation forces have murdered 5 Palestinian residents and critically injured 1 international solidarity activist during unarmed demonstrations in Ni’lin. In total, 19 people have been killed during demonstrations against the Wall.

  • 5 June 2009: Yousef Akil Srour (36) was shot in the chest with 0.22 caliber live ammunition and pronounced dead upon arrival at a Ramallah hospital.
  • 13 March 2009: Tristan Anderson (37), an American citizen, was shot in the head with a high velocity tear gas projectile. He is currently at Tel Hashomer hospital with an unknown
  • 28 December 2008: Mohammed Khawaje (20) was shot in the head with 5.56mm caliber live ammunition. He died in a Ramallah hospital 3 days later on 31 December 2008.
  • 28 December 2008: Arafat Rateb Khawaje (22) was shot in the back with 5.56mm caliber live ammunition and pronounced dead upon arrival at a Ramallah hospital.
  • 30 July 2008: Yousef Amira (17) was shot in the head with two rubber coated steel bullets. He died in a Ramallah hospital 5 days later on 4 August 2008.
  • 29 July 2008: Ahmed Mousa (10) was shot in the forehead with 5.56mm caliber live ammunition and pronounced dead upon arrival at a Ramallah hospital.

In total, 38 people have been shot by Israeli forces with live ammunition in Ni’lin: 9 were shot with 5.56mm caliber live ammunition and 29 were shot with 0.22 caliber live ammunition.

Since May 2008, residents of Ni’lin have been organizing and participating in unarmed demonstrations against construction of the Apartheid Wall. Despite being deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004, the Occupation continues to build the Wall, further annexing Palestinian land.

Ni’lin will lose approximately 2,500 dunums of agricultural land when construction of the Wall is completed. Israel annexed 40,000 of Ni’lin’s 58,000 dunums in 1948. After the occupation of the West Bank in 1967, the illegal settlements and infrastructure of Kiryat Sefer, Mattityahu and Maccabim were built on village lands and Ni’lin lost another 8,000 dunums. Of the remaining 10,000 dunums, the Occupation will confiscate 2,500 for the Wall and 200 for a tunnel to be built under the segregated settler-only road 446. Ni’lin will be left with 7,300 dunums.

The current entrance to the village will be closed and replaced by a tunnel to be built under Road 446. This tunnel will allow for the closure of the road to Palestinian vehicles, turning road 446 into a segregated settler-only road . Ni’lin will be effectively split into 2 parts (upper Ni’lin and lower Ni’lin), as road 446 runs between the village. The tunnel is designed to give Israeli occupation forces control of movement over Ni’lin residents, as it can be blocked with a single military vehicle.

Israeli forces kidnap 2 Ni’lin residents

29 July 2009

In the early morning on Wednesday 29 the brothers Saeed Attallah Ameerah , 24, and Ahmed Attallah Ameerah, 22, were brutally kidnapped from their home. At 5 am, dozens of soldiers surrounded their house and pounded on their door. Ahmed opened and was immediately grabbed by the soldiers , beaten, handcuffed and blind folded. About 17 soldiers entered the home, found Saeed whom they forcefully handcuffed and blind folded. The terrified family, in total 11 persons, were placed in one room while their brothers were kept in another room. When their brother in law tried to interfere also he was beaten, handcuffed and blindfolded.

“I was so scared. Soldiers were everywhere and I saw how Ahmed’s wrists were bleeding cause they were so tight tied together. Soldiers have entered our house in night time many times, its horrible. This time my mum got so scared and upset that we had to take her to the doctor ”  –Ahlam, sister of Ahmed and Saeed

The soldiers also searched the house trying to find a third brother who wasn’t at home. After over one hour the soldiers left and brought Saeed and Ahmed with them. The brothers had to leave in only their pajamas and no explanations were given to the family about why the boys were taken or where they where taken to.

Israeli arrest and intimidation campaigns on the villages that demonstrate against the Wall, have led to the arrests of over 76 Palestinians in Ni’lin alone. (see Adameer and Stop the Wall report: http://www.stopthewall.org/downloads/pdf/repress.pdf)

Bil’in demonstrates against nightly raids

Bil’in Popular Committee

30 July 2009

On Wednesday night, July 29, one hundred villagers of Bil’in along with their International and Israeli supporters conducted a Protest March against the IDF’s nightly raids and detaining of Palestinian villagers.

The protest march began in the village of Bil’in, but buoyed by peace songs, chants, and flashlight-lit containers with peace messages written on them in over a dozen languages, the enthusiastic marchers walked down to the Separation Fence and where a 15-minute rally was held.

The lights and chanting attracted several Israeli military vehicles who launched several night flares (inducing exuberant cheering and vigorous waving of the Palestinian flags carried by several members) as the landscape brightened. It was reported that one tear gas canister was fired in the vicinity of the demonstrators, but no one was injured, fortunately.

Bil’in has been conducting regular protest marches against the illegal wall’s incursion into its farmland every Friday noon since 2005. Wednesday’s protest was the second weekly nighttime demonstration created by the Bil’in Popular Committee members. Their common purpose is to ‘take the message to the perpetrators’… that the wall’s location is illegal, that Israeli’s occupation of Palestine is wrong and harmful to the Palestinian people, and that the IDF’s night-time incursions into Bil’in’s peaceful village (arresting its youth and leadership) will be resisted with a wide variety of peaceful methods until justice is done.

Bil’in under attack

Alternative Information Center (AIC)

30 July 2009

Five years ago the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued its advisory opinion declaring that the Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is illegal and should be dismantled. After five years of silence and complicity by the international community in perpetrating this crime, several villages across the Occupied West Bank have formed committees engaged in continuous demonstrations against the Wall and the settlements. Israel is getting worried by this phenomenon of mass popular resistance, especially because of the unity being created amongst Palestinians, Israeli and International activists who have been demonstrating together against the apartheid Wall for more than four years. That’s why the Israeli military is escalating the level of violence and repression against these communities (curfews, sieges, destruction of property, threats, arrests and kidnappings of activists, injuries and killings of protestors), by targeting individuals as well as collectively punishing entire communities. The aim is to break the growing popular resistance movement and to discourage villages’ support for the resistance.

In the past weeks the Israeli Occupying Forces have invaded the village of Bil’in (whose 60 percent of its farmland are confiscated by the Wall) and other villages, raiding homes in the early hours of the morning to seize demonstrators, mainly youth under the age of 18, pressuring them to confess they were throwing stones during demonstrations or in general accusing them of instigating violence. In the last few weeks almost 20 people have been kidnapped in Bil’in. That’s why the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements requested the presence of Israeli and international activists to document and discourage the night raids, spending the night in the village. On Thursday July 16th, I decided, with a couple of friends, to bring the village our solidarity and “sleep” there the night before the Friday’s demonstration. Having witnessed one of these “arrests” that night, I’ll try to write down what I passed though.

As usual we were warmly welcomed by the families of the village and we were introduced to the activists of the International Solidarity Movement, permanent presence in the village (just few days before an US activist of the ISM was arrested while trying to prevent soldiers from kidnapping a Palestinian). We organized in three groups, each standing on its rooftop in a strategic side of the village, in the attempt to catch the soldiers coming and forewarning the others. Our group was made by 5-6 people, staring at the point of the Wall where we were expecting soldiers’ jeeps crossing the Separation Wall towards the village. Hot coffee and narghile helped us with the cold night and the long wait. After a couple of hours, at around 2 am, a mobile rang and we were informed that jeeps full of soldiers had invaded the village and were arresting people. We jumped into a car and rushed to the house where the arrest was taking place. Dozens of soldiers, on a war footing, wearing dark military camouflage uniforms and black masks, already surrounded and entered the house, searching everywhere inside. We got out the car altogether trying to enter the house and we started recording and taking pictures of soldiers. Of course we were immediately stopped and ordered to leave under threat of being arrested. At this point we saw all the family (father, mother, daughters and sons) pulled out from their home in a humiliating way, still wearing pajamas. They were followed by Imad Burnat, member of the Bil’iI n Popular Committee, blindfold and hand-tied, arrested and pushed out by a bunch of soldiers. Imad was brutally dragged for one kilometer across the countryside, in the middle of the night, until when he was pushed him into a military vehicle and left to the nearby military outpost.

Some Palestinians, Amid’s father and a dozen of international activists first tried to block the path of the army unit (about 20 soldiers), then followed them asking for the immediate release of Amid and protesting the systematic policy of kidnappings Palestinians of the village. The Occupying Forces tried to disperse us hitting with their rifles, throwing percussion grenades, sound bombs and spraying chemicals in our faces. We managed to disturb the army’s path until additional units came and began chasing us. While avoiding getting caught and arrested, Haitham Al-Katib, a Palestinian activist, stumbled and got injured in his leg. As the soldiers were coming back towards the village, Amid’s father, in a fit of despair, hugged his little son and stood in front of them saying to his child and pointing to the soldiers, as if to give him a lesson: “Don’t be afraid! Look at them! They are soldiers, Israelis! They took your brother!”.

The soldiers’ unit left followed, some minutes later, by at least four more jeeps coming from inside the village. We estimated that between 50 and 80 soldiers were involved in the arrest of an unarmed civil Palestinian.

Despite the recent wave of arrests and the escalation in the repression of the protests, the popular resistance movement has not been defeated and weekly demonstrations against the Wall and settlements continue in Bil’in, Ni’lin, Jayyus, al-Ma’sara and other villages.

For further info on the popular resistance in Bil’in see www.bilin-village.org. See also “Repression allowed, resistance denied: Israel’s suppression of the popular movement against the Apartheid Wall of Annexation”, Addameer and Stop the Wall Campaign new Joint Report.

International movements breaking the siege on Gaza

Suzanne Morrison | Common Dreams

28 July 2009

Since June 2007 the Israeli government has imposed almost complete closure over the Gaza Strip. The siege prevents nearly all movement of people or goods to and from the coastal region with only minimal amounts of humanitarian provisions inconsistently allowed in. With the exception of a small amount of carnations allowed out earlier this year, there has been a virtual ban on all exports from Gaza since 2007. [1] A quick socio-economic glimpse of Gaza includes agricultural losses totaling US $30 million and more than 40,000 jobs for the 2007/2008 season, the suspension of 98% of industrial operations, and more than 80% of Gaza’s population is now dependent on humanitarian aid from international aid providing agencies. [2]

Closure of Gaza and the West Bank has intermittently been imposed since 1991. While Israel prevents movement and access in the name of temporary security measures, the regularity and extent of these mechanisms, particularly since the Oslo process, represents an institutionalized policy of closure. Israel’s current siege on Gaza reflects an unprecedented and severe application of the closure policy. In the past year internationals have tried to break the siege on Gaza by bringing critical medical supplies and other humanitarian goods into Gaza.

While the world’s most powerful and influential states stand back and watch the complete collapse of Gaza’s economy and livelihood of its population, citizens around the world are joining Palestinians in various forms to break the siege on Gaza.

In August 2008 the Free Gaza Movement sent the first boat into the Gaza port in 41 years. Since the first boat set sail, the Free Gaza Movement has sent seven more boats to Gaza with vital supplies, medical staff, journalists, and prominent individuals such as Lauren Booth, sister-in-law of Tony Blair, 1976 Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Corrigan, Palestinian Legislative Council member Mustafa Barghouti, and Nobel Laureate Mairead Maguire. The Free Gaza Movement plans to send more boats to Gaza in the future.

For over 30 days the International Movement to Open the Rafah Border has maintained a persistent presence on the border of Egypt and Gaza to demand an opening of the border and end to the siege. They call on any person or group to join them “until the definitive opening of the border between Gaza and Egypt.”

Viva Palestina is an aid convoy initiated by UK Member of Parliament George Galloway. In March of this year Viva Palestina took over 100 vehicles filled with humanitarian supplies from the UK to Gaza. Galloway and Vietnam veteran and peace campaigner Ron Kovic recently organized a US-led Viva Palestina convoy. The convoy entered Gaza through Rafah Crossing with 200 Americans including former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and New York Councilmember Charles Barron. Viva Palestina is planning another convoy from the UK in October 2009.

After a successful delegation in March that coincided with International Women’s day, Code Pink organized two delegations to Gaza earlier this summer – one through Rafah Crossing in the south and one through Erez Crossing in the north that brought vital supplies to the people of Gaza.

The Coalition to End the Illegal Siege of Gaza, coordinated by Norman Finklestein and other leading academics/activists, is organizing a March on Gaza for January 1, 2010. According to a website promoting the march, “when nations fail to enforce the law, when the world’s leaders break the law, the people must act!”

In addition to the larger acts of international popular resistance against the Israeli siege on Gaza, there are a host of smaller initiatives lead by Palestinians, Israelis, and internationals that work in tandem to these efforts.

Total success of any one group has been difficult, given the immense amount of opposition from the Israeli and Egyptian governments (and the powerful states that support them). Members of each group have suffered in various ways from bureaucratic hurdles, arrest, detention, deportation, etc. as the Egyptian and Israeli states hope to suppress and otherwise intimidate peoples of conscious. While breaking the siege on Gaza requires more than delivering humanitarian aid, collectively the international popular movements represent a very real threat to Israel’s closure policy.

The longer the siege lasts, the larger the popular resistance to it appears to become. Over two years after its implementation, the movements to end the siege are larger and stronger than ever before. What is clear by all these acts of popular resistance is that people of the world are prepared to do what states are either unwilling or too inept to do – break the siege on Gaza!

1. PALTRADE, “Gaza Strip Crossings Monitoring Report,” Monthly Report (June 2009).

2. World Bank, “Moving Beyond the ‘Movement and Access’ Approach” West Bank and Gaza Update (October 2008), 15 and OCHA Special Focus, “The Closure of the Gaza Strip: The Economic and Humanitarian Consequences” (December 2007).

Suzanne Morrison lived in Gaza in 2005-2006 and is currently a master’s candidate at the American University in Cairo. She is completing her thesis on the role of international institutions in Palestinian state formation. She can be reached at: suzanne_m@aucegypt.edu.