Tag: Abdallah Abu Rahmah - Page 12 - International Solidarity Movement

Bil’in residents call for the release of the village’s prisoners in a weekly Friday demonstration

11 December 2009

Approximately 150 Palestinian, international and Israeli activists gathered in Bil’in today, marking the 22nd anniversary of the start of the First Intifada and calling for the release of the village’s prisoners arrested for their involvement in the non-violent demonstrations against the Wall and settlements built on land stolen from Bil’in.

Demonstrators gathered in the village after the Friday prayers and marched towards the Wall that is being constructed on their land. Organised by the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, activists raised Palestinian flags and banners condemning Israel’s policy of settlement expansion and the recent arrest campaign conducted by the Israeli military against the residents of Bil’in.

Protesters chanted slogans calling for national unity and rejection of political differences, stressing the need to keep with Palestinian national principles. They expressed their determination to resist the occupation and continue the fight for the release of all political prisoners. Demonstrators demanded the release of all Bil’in’s detainees, including Abdallah Abu Rahmah, coordinator of the Bil’in Popular Committee, who was arrested by Israeli military at 2am on Thursday 10 December and another leading activist, Adeeb Abu Rahmah, who has been held for over five months in sIsraeli prisons.

When the march arrived to the Wall, demonstrators were confronted by the Israeli soldiers, stationed on the other side of the barrier. The army started throwing tear-gas bombs within minutes of the start of the demonstration and, after activists attempted to open the gate supported by barbed wire that separates the villages from their land, the Israeli soldiers escalated their violence and proceeded to fire stun grenades, tear-gas canisters and rubber-coated steel bullets at the crowd. Dozens suffered tear-gas inhalation as result.

The Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall expressed their support to the recent initiative of Sweden and the Foreign Ministers of the European Union calling for the recognition of Palestinian state within its 1967 borders, including occupied East Jerusalem as its capital and their rejection of any other proposals compromising the 1967 borders.

As part of a recent escalation of political arrests in Bil’in, Abdallah Abu Rahmah, a school teacher and coordinator of the Bil’in Popular Committee was arrested by Israeli soldiers. At 2am on Thursday, 10 December 2009, nine Israeli military jeeps pulled over at Abdallah Abu Rahmah’s home in the city of Ramallah . Soldiers raided the house and arrested Abu Rahmah from his bed in the presence of his wife and three children. A previous raid targeting Abu Rahmah on 15 September 2009 was executed with such exceptional violence, that a soldier was subsequently indicted for assault. In addition, undercover army units have invaded Bil’in at two occasions last week, searching for Adballah.

His arrest is a part of an ongoing campaign conducted by the Israeli military against the residents of Bil’in and leaders of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, in an attempt to discourage them from continuing their non-violent struggle. Since 23 June 2009, 31 residents of Bil’in have been detained by the military.

Israel arrests Palestinian barrier protest leader

Ben Hubbard | Washington Post

11 December 2009

RAMALLAH, West Bank — A leader of the most persistent Palestinian protest movement against Israel’s West Bank separation barrier was asleep in his home when troops broke down his door and arrested him.

Supporters of Abdullah Abu Rahmeh, a 38-year-old teacher, say his pre-dawn arrest on Thursday by dozens of troops is part of a recent, heavy-handed campaign by Israel to shut down a five-year-old movement that is the last source of unrest in the West Bank.

Since 2005, demonstrators led by Abu Rahmeh have marched every Friday from the West Bank village of Bilin to the nearby separation barrier that slices off 60 percent of the village land. Their acts of protest, which have also included chaining themselves to trees, have won praise from Jimmy Carter and Desmond Tutu and support among Israeli peace activists.

About two years ago, villagers in nearby Naalin started similar marches.

Some demonstrators routinely throw stones at Israeli soldiers, who fire tear gas, stun grenades, rubber-coated bullets and occasionally live rounds. One Bilin man and five in Naalin have been killed and hundreds have been wounded over the years. Israeli troops have also suffered some – though far fewer – injuries, including a soldier who lost an eye.

Israel considers the protests illegal and portrays them as riots, not nonviolent demonstrations.

Israel says the barrier – a wall in some places, a system of roads, cameras and fences in places like Bilin – seeks to keep out Palestinian attackers, including suicide bombers. Palestinians call it a tool to steal land, since it juts far into the West Bank in some places.

Abu Rahmeh’s Israeli lawyer, Gaby Lasky, said Israel is trying to stifle legitimate protest.

“The Israeli army has decided to crush the demonstrations by putting their leaders behind bars in complete violation of the right of freedom to demonstrate and freedom of speech,” she said. Israel has declared the area a closed military zone, banning civilians and making it a violation of Israeli law to be there.

The weekly protests in Bilin and Naalin are the only remaining pockets of unrest in the West Bank. The rest of the territory – controlled by Israel, with Palestinians given limited self-rule in some areas – has been pacified; many Palestinians are simply too tired to take to the streets after several years of bloody clashes with Israeli forces.

But the military has failed to end the Bilin and Naalin marches, even though it has tried different tactics, such as spraying demonstrators with foul-smelling liquids and imposing curfews.

Since June, troops have arrested 31 Bilin residents involved in the marches, among them 12 minors, organizers said. The arrests have focused on members of the village’s organizing committee and teens accused of throwing stones. Thirteen are currently in detention, five of them minors.

Abu Rahmeh’s lawyer said this was her client’s fourth arrest in five years, and that Israel has indicted him on charges of breaking curfew, interfering with police work and disturbing the public order. He was released pending trial before his new arrest Thursday, she said. Authorities have not said how long he will be held this time.

Most arrests happen at night, with large numbers of soldiers entering homes, villagers said. Detainees are often bound and blindfolded and sometimes beaten before being taken away for questioning, villagers said.

Detention ranges from a few days to several months, and a few are charged with crimes like incitement or stone-throwing, Bilin residents said.

Abu Rahmeh said in an interview in October that the army tried to arrest him in September, sending 50 soldiers to his Bilin home. He fled, then hid out in the nearby city of Ramallah, though he continued to attend the Friday marches.
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Later, troops left a written summons for him to report to Israel’s security service. Abu Rahmeh didn’t go. “We practice popular resistance. We don’t do anything illegal, but they try to come up with counterfeit stories and use those to arrest us,” he said in October.

Early Thursday, nine jeeps surrounded Abu Rahmeh’s Ramallah apartment, said his wife, Majida.

“We were sleeping when they knocked, and there was all this noise downstairs so we knew right away,” she said. Four soldiers broke down the door before the family could open it and took her husband away, she said.

The small village of 1,800 people about seven miles (12 kilometers) west of Ramallah won a rare victory in 2007, when they Israeli Supreme Court ruled that the route of the barrier near Bilin had little to do with security and more to do with giving land to a nearby Jewish settlement.

The ruling would return 25 percent of the village’s land, but it has been tied up in appeals.

So the villagers keep marching.

Release Bil’in popular leader Abdallah Abu Rahmah

10 December 2009

Abdallah Abu Rahmah (right) with Ela Bhatt, Desmond Tutu, Jimmy Carter, Fernando H Cardoso, Mary Robinson and Gro Brundtland of the Elders during their visit to Bil'in

As part of a recent escalation of political arrests in Bil’in, Abdallah Abu Rahmah, a school teacher and coordinator of the Bil’in Popular Committee was arrested by Israeli soldiers.

At 2am on Thursday, 10 December 2009, seven Israeli military jeeps pulled over at Abdallah Abu Rahmah’s home in the city of Ramallah. Soldiers raided the house and arrested Abu Rahmah from his bed in the presence of his wife and three children. Abu Rahmah is a high school teacher in the Latin Patriarchate School in Birzeit near Ramallah and coordinator for the Bil’in Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements. A previous raid targeting Abu Rahmah on 15 September 2009 was executed with such exceptional violence, that a soldier was subsequently indicted for assault.

Abdallah has been a member of the Bil’in Popular Committee since its conception in 2004. As coordinator, Abu Rahmah not only regularly organizes and attends the weekly Friday demonstrations but does the media work for the Bil’in struggle. Abdallah has represented the village in engagements around the world to further Bil’in’s cause. He has traveled to Montreal to participate in a speaking tour and the village’s legal case against two Canadian companies building settlements on Bil’in’s land in June 2009, and in December of 2008, he participated in a speaking tour in France and traveled to Germany to accept the the Carl von Ossietzky Medal for outstanding service in the realization of basic and human rights, awarded by the board of trustees of the International League for Human Rights on behalf of Bil’in. Abdallah’s endless work for his village is just a part of his incredible persona, many of us know him personally, as he welcomes thousands of international, Palestinian and Israeli activists when they visit Bil’in.

Abu Rahmah’s arrest is part of an escalation in Israeli military’s attempts to break the spirit of the people of Bil’in, their popular leadership, and the popular struggle as a whole – aimed at crushing demonstrations against the Wall. Recently, Adv. Gaby Lasky, who represents many of Bil’in’s detainees, was informed by the military prosecution that the army intends to use legal measures as a means of ending the demonstrations.

Following Abu Rahmah’s arrest, Adv. Lasky, stated that “My client’s arrest is another blatant illustration of the Israeli authorities’ application of legal procedures for the political persecution of Bil’in residents. The Bil’in demonstrators are being systemically targeted while it is the State that is in contempt of a High Court of Justice ruling; a ruling which affirmed that the protesters have justice on their side and instructed 2 years ago that the route of the Wall in the area be changed, which has not been implemented to date.”

Since 23 June 2009, 31 residents of Bil’in have been detained by the military in a wave of night raids and arrests which began concurrently with preliminary hearings in a lawsuit against two Canadian companies responsible for the construction of an Israeli settlement on Bil’in’s land. The Israeli military is targeting protesters and the leadership of Bil’in’s Popular Committee. Apart from Abdallah, three other committee members were arrested, but all of them were released for lack of evidence. In the case of Mohammed Khatib, the court even found some of the presented evidence to be falsified. In addition to committee members, a leading Bil’in activist, Adeeb Abu Rahmah, who has been detained for over five months, is not suspected of committing any violence, but was indicted with a blanket charge of “incitement”, which was very liberally interpreted in this case to include the organizing of grassroots demonstrations.

While they continue their struggle, they need your support.

What can you do?

Attempts to criminalize the leadership of non-violent protests where curbed in the past with the help of an outpouring of support from people committed to justice from all over the world.

Please protest by contacting your political representatives, as well as your consuls and ambassadors to Israel (http://www.embassiesabroad.com/embassies-of/Israel) to demand that Israel stops targeting non-violent popular resistance and release Abdallah Abu Rahmah and all Bil’in prisoners.
Organise demonstrations outside of Israeli embassies in your countries in condemnation of Israel’s ongoing arrest campaign against non-violent activists and in solidarity with those who remain in Israel’s prisons (All demonstrations can be coordinated through palreports@gmail.com for media support work).
The Popular Committee of Bil’in is in desperate need for funds in order to pay legal fees both for the trial in Montréal and for representing the arrested protesters in the military courts and bail. Please donate to the Bil’in legal fund through PayPal. If you would like to make a tax deductible donation in the US or Canada contact: bilinlegal@gmail.com.

The Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements

Background

Following initial construction of Israel’s wall on Bil’in’s lands in March 2005, residents organized almost daily direct actions and demonstrations against the theft of their lands. Garnering the attention of the international community with their creativity and perseverance, Bil’in has become a symbol for Palestinian popular resistance. Almost five years later, Bil’in continues to have weekly Friday protests.

Located 12 kilometers west of Ramallah and 4 km east of the Green Line, Bil’in is an agricultural village spanning 4,000 dunams (988 acres) with approximately 1,800 residents.

While construction of and opposition to the Wall and began in 2005, the majority of land had been expropriated from Bil’in earlier.

Starting in the early 1980’s, and more significantly in 1991, approximately 56% of Bil’in’s agricultural land was declared ‘State Land’ for the construction of the settlement bloc, Modi’in Illit. Modi’in Illit currently holds the largest settler population of any settlement bloc, with over 42,000 residents and plans to achieve a population of 150,000.

In addition to grassroots organizing, Bil’in has held annual conferences on popular resistance since 2006; providing a forum for activists, academics, and leaders to discuss strategies for the unarmed struggle against the Occupation.

Bil’in embraced legal measures against Israel as part of its multi-lateral resistance to the theft of their livelihoods. The village first turned to the courts in the fall of 2005. Two years after they initiated legal proceedings, the Israeli High Court of Justice ruled that due to illegal construction in part of Modi’in Illit, unfinished housing could not be completed and that the route of the Wall be moved several hundred meters west, returning 25% of Bil’in’s lands to the village. To date, the high court ruling has not been implemented and construction continues.

In July 2008, Bil’in commenced legal proceedings before the Superior Court of Quebec against Green Park International Inc and Green Mount International Inc for their involvement in constructing, marketing and selling residential units in the Mattityahu East section of Modi’in Illit

In an effort to stop the popular resistance in Bil’in, Israeli authorities intimidate demonstrators with physical violence and arrests.

Israeli armed forces have used sound and shock grenades, water cannons, rubber-coated steel bullets, tear-gas grenades, tear-gas canisters, high velocity tear-gas projectiles, 0.22 caliber live ammunition and live ammunition against protesters.

On 17 April 2009, Bassem Abu Rahma was shot with a high-velocity tear gas projectile in the chest by Israeli forces and subsequently died from his wounds at a Ramallah hospital.

Out of the 78 residents who have been arrested in connection to demonstrations against the Wall, 31 were arrested after the beginning of a night raid campaign on 23 June 2009. Israeli armed forces have been regularly invading homes and forcefully searching for demonstration participants, targeting the leaders of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, as well as teenage boys accused of throwing stones at the Wall. Thirteen currently remain in detention, five of which are minors.

Bil’in leader Abdallah Abu Rahmah arrested during military night raid

Popular Struggle Coordination Committee

10 December 2009

As part of a recent escalation of political arrests in Bil’in, Abdallah Abu Rahmah, a school teacher and coordinator of the Bil’in Popular Committee was arrested by Israeli soldiers

At exactly 2 AM last night, seven Israeli military jeeps pulled over at Abdallah Abu Rahmah’s residence in the city of Ramallah. Soldiers raided the house and arrested Abu Rahmah from his bed in the presence of his wife and children. Abu Rahmah is a high school teacher in the Latin Patriarchate school in Birzeit near Ramallah and is the coordinator of the Bil’in Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements. A previous raid targeting Abu Rahmah was executed with such exceptional violence on 15 September 2009, that a soldier was subsequently indicted for assault.

Since 23 June 2009, 31 residents of Bil’in have been detained by the military. The Army has pursued Popular Committee members in its arrest operation, but all three detained members were released for lack of evidence. In the case of another member, Mohammed Khatib, the court even found some of the presented evidence to be falsified.

In addition to committee members, a leading Bil’in activist, Adeeb Abu Rahmah, who has been detained for over five months, is not suspected of committing any violence, but was indicted with a blanket charge of “incitement”, which was very liberally interpreted in this case to include the organizing of grassroots demonstrations.