16th March 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Occupied palestine
On the night of the 12th March, Israeli forces invaded the village of Burin and arrested a 21 year-old man in his house.
This arrest is part of a wave of arrests and repression of the village by Israeli forces since al-Manatir neighbourhood was established on a village’s hilltop in early February.
Al-Manatir neighbourhood was attacked by settlers and evicted by Israeli forces (Photo by ISM)
The hilltop, threatened of confiscation by Israeli settlers and military, has been inaccessible to Palestinians since 2007. Last February, dozens of Palestinians activists established Al-Manatir neighbouhood but the protest camp was soon attack by settlers from Yitzhar and Bracha settlements and evicted by Israeli forces. Seven people were violently arrested, three of them remaining in prison for twelve days. In addition, a young Palestinian boy was shot with live ammunition in the leg by a settler.
Since then, six people from the village have been arrested; two of them are still in prison. Muntasser Mahmoud Eid was taken blindfolded from his house at 2pm and is currently being held in Jalama prison.
The arrest was made after confrontations between Palestinian youth and Israeli forces erupted on the hilltop. Israeli army prevented Palestinians from accesing the hilltop by shooting tear gas canisters at them. Afterwards, at night, at around 2pm, several military jeeps inavaded the village and entered Muntasser’s house; tearing him in hi sleep.
It is expected that more arrests will be made in the following weeks as Israeli authorities clearly want to crush the village’s popular struggle against the occupation.
The Village of Burin, situated in between two of the most violent and fundamentalist settlements in the occupied West Bank, Yizhar and Bracha, has been facing constant harassment, intimidation and violence by both the settlers and the Israeli army for years.
06 February 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Occupied Palestine
Three Palestinians are still being held in detention following last Saturday´s Al-Manatir protest camp in Burin. The three of them are suspected of participating in a march without permission as well as throwing stones.
The two adults, Wahid Qadoos and Ashraf Abu Rahma, are also facing potentially an extra charge of assaulting soldiers. Dhia Audhh, the other defendant is a minor from Tammun aged just 17 years old.
Yesterday (5/2/12) the Israeli authorities were pursuing a prosecution, against all three suspects. Today as they arrived in court the military prosecution chose an unusual change of tact. They presented secret files to the military judge explaining why The need five days in order to complete the investigation. According to the military Judge this will include looking into violence from the Israeli settlers that attacked the Palestinians residents of Hai Al-Manatir.
This seems to be as a direct result of attention of the media and human rights groups in the trial.
Although the trial is being delayed so an investigation can be made into the settlers and soldiers violent attacks, the price of the delay is being paid by the three detainees who remain inside Israeli Jails. All three detainees were assaulted by soldiers. Young Diaa was assaulted by settlers, who also egged the soldiers on to “kill him” as they beat him. The military judge didn’t find Diaa’s final high school exams to be a good enough reason to release him or that release to house arrest on bail would suffice for any of the detainees.
The Military Judge ordered them to be held untill the next hearing in their case on Sunday.
Settler with a slingshot at Al-Manatir (Photo: ISM)
Saturday morning moments after Palestinians planted metal huts and canvas tents on a rocky hilltop in the northern West Bank village of Burin, Israeli settlers were pelting them with rocks. Armed with slingshots and at least one gun the settlers stormed the Palestinians who were setting up a protest encampment similar to Bab al-Shams in the E-1 corridor, the fourth such encampment in the past month.
But the confrontation escalated and the encampment, which was to be named al-Manatir, was never established.
Burin is located in the Nablus governorate, which sees the highest rate of settler violence [PDF] in the West Bank. Attacks are almost daily. There are 12 settlements and 36 outposts in the district, and the outposts are often home to the gun wielding “hilltop youth,” a violent gang of settlers known for “price tag” attacks on both Palestinians and the Israeli military. The volatile atmosphere runs through all of the small villages near Burin. Just a few days ago the International Solidarity Movement highlighted Urif, a village a few kilometers from Burin, noting after two months of habitual settler attacks in December 2012 that 17 women had miscarriages, which they speculated was caused by the harassment.
At 9:30 am Saturday morning around 50 Palestinians went to work erecting tents. By 10 am, many supporters had joined them, bumping the number of protesters to 200. The settlers who live on the next hilltop over were irate; one activist described them as being like enraged mothers flinging their bodies across an army of brutes in order to save their young. She said it was like a movie. But the settlers who were dressed in white with their faces covered, were not striving to keep anything they already owned. Palestinians from Burin have a deed for the land where the protest camp was supposed to extend. And according to villagers, the ownership is not contested by the state of Israel.
Army trying to keep the settlers at bay in the beginning. (Photo Katie W., ISM)
Initially the Israeli military kept the settlers at bay. Such harassment is common in Burin, but it is atypical for the army to intercede on behalf of Palestinians. However, the reprieve only lasted a half an hour and by noon the settlers snatched two of the Palestinian’s metallic huts and carted them back up the hilltops.
Fadi Quran, a Ramallah based activist, showed me a video of the settlers stealing the shelters while the military watched without reaction. “It’s apartheid, it’s plain to everyone’s eyes,” said Quran, explaining the military’s crackdown on the Palestinians and relative blind-eye to the settlers. ”Here are the soldiers firing at us and here are the settlers carrying the tent up the hill.”
Reflecting the sunlight, the huts looked like miniature Frank Gehry designs bobbing– as far from subversion as the settlers could walk.
Shortly after the shelters were stolen, a group of about 30 settlers ran off towards the outskirts of the Palestinians village and indiscriminately attacked houses. They threw stones and were soon met by Palestinians who tried to protect their neighbors’ homes by throwing rocks at the settlers.
Back at the protest site the military fired tear gas and live bullets. Unlike other direct actions where the Israeli military positions itself at a distance from the protesters and incrementally advances to meet their opposition, in Burin the army fired while swarmed by Palestinians and settlers. With nowhere left to go the Palestinians took cover inside of Burin’s windy streets.
Tear gas choked the entire village by the time I arrived in the late afternoon. One infant had been rushed to a hospital and later a woman in her twenties was driven out after inhaling too much gas. My first interaction with Palestinians inside of Burin was a mother with three young children who jumped in our car for a ride to cleaner air. I dropped them off and then headed towards the chorus of live fire in the center of town, where the organizers were resting.
By nightfall the Palestinians had lost steam. Most people held small cloths to their faces, soaked rubbing alcohol and distributed by the Red Crescent Society; and one activist gripped a halved onion. For some, the entire day had been spent running from the military. In the evening it was unclear what they were still doing in the village. The protest encampment was cleared hours ago and the huts that were salvaged were now abandoned in Burin’s alleyways. The village was also sealed off by a checkpoint, and 18 were arrested and three injured, according to Tweets that same day from activists. The settlers had shot one Palestinian in the leg and destroyed around 100 olive trees. The injured youth, Zakharia Yaser Nijar, 17, a high school student from Burin, was taken to a hospital in Nablus.
Arrest of Ashraf Abu Rahmah from Bil’in (Photo: ISM)
Before leaving, Amar Eid, 19, from Burin, pointed out to me to three different hilltops that have settlers. I asked him the name of the settlements and he laughed and said, “We can’t know all the names. There’s too many.” The settlements of Adei Ad, Bracha, Yitzhar, and Mitzpe encircle the stone and concrete houses of Burin.
Editor’s note: See a related article by ISM here. For more photos click here.
In what seems to be a collective punishment for last Saturday´s construction of al-Manateer neighbourhood on privately owned Palestinian land (classified as Area B, according to the Oslo Accords) in Burin, Sunday night saw the Israeli army arrest two young boys from the village.
At around 8:30pm, a supposedly Palestinian ambulance showed up in Burin. Villagers were suspicious as the driver didn’t look entirely like a Palestinian. As young boys realised that the men in the front were plain-clothed Israeli soldiers, clashes erupted between Palestinian youth and soldiers.
Later on, as Ghassan and Mohammad were in a friend’s house, the Israeli special unit, all in black and wearing balaclavas, entered demanding IDs and arrested both men. Ghassan was brought handcuffed and blindfolded to an army jeep and, there, was interrogated by the military commander before being released. In the case of Mohammad, he was taken, also handcuffed and blindfolded, to Huwara military base and then released; not before telling him that he couldn’t take a taxi or otherwise they would arrest him again.
by Katie W.
2 January 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Al-Manatir, Occupied Palestine
I hate checkpoints forcing us to wait and take long detours. I hate teargas, especially when it leaves me unable to breathe. I hate rubber bullets being fired around me. I hate stunt grenades, especially when they are fired directly at me from a distance of three metres, and the impact makes me fall back over. I hate friends getting pepper-sprayed and nearly arrested. I hate to see fellow demonstrators actually getting arrested, especially after being kicked by several soldiers wearing heavy boots whilst laying on the ground. I hate how the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) and border police treated us today. I hate the human rights violations I witnessed. I hate the hateful behaviour of extremist settlers who severely injured a Palestinian with live ammunition and who cut down a hundred olive trees belonging to Burin villagers. I hate the fact that Palestinians can’t even be safe in their own houses because the army is shooting teargas, rubber bullets and live ammunition all around the village. I hate collective punishment which, by the way, is illegal under international law. I hate the imam having to urge people to pray at home rather than the mosque as it would be too dangerous to go there. I hate this illegal occupation with all its injustice, suffering and human rights abuses.
I love the fact that my friends managed to de-arrest a Palestinian, saving him from what may well have been several years of prison. I love the fact that everyone was generously sharing food and water. I love kind strangers inviting us to their house. I love random people taking us into their houses to protect us from the havoc outside. I love the brave first aid workers who helped so many of us affected by the teargas and those seriously injured, at great personal risks. I love onions and people who give them out to help ease the effects of teargas. I love making new friends. I love how much common suffering can bond people together and bring out the best in humanity. I love the spirit of defiance of the Palestinian people. I love the spirit of unity and determination among the people of Burin. I love hearing that they felt the barrier of fear was broken, and they will continue to resist the illegal occupation.
It has certainly been a crazy, action-filled, emotional, horrifying, uplifiting,… day. I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed this much inhumanity and at the same time so much humanity in a singly day.
Today, the residents of Burin, a village near Nablus in Occupied Palestine, joined by activists from across Palestine as well as a handful of internationals, established the village of Al-Manatir on a hill outside Burin. This is the fourth village in a series of protest encampments, following the establishment of Bab Al-Shams, Bab Al-Karama and Al-Asra last month.
The newly established village of Al-Manatir
The people of Burin have lost much of their land to the nearby illegal Israeli settlements Har Brakha and Yitzhar. Many villagers have lost access to their fields and olive trees and thus their means of livelihood. For years, they have been facing harassment, intimidation and violence by both the settlers and the Israeli army.
Earlier this week, the UN Human Rights Council released its harshest report on Israeli settlements to date, condemning them as “leading to a creeping annexation that prevents the establishment of a contiguous and viable Palestinian state and undermines the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination”. The report also harshly criticises the Israeli authorities for deliberately choosing to ignore rather than punishing settlers’ acts of violence, which it describes as “ institutionalized discrimination against the Palestinian people” with the aim of driving them from their land and expanding settlements.
Today, Palestinians joined together to engage in non-violent, direct-action resistance against the illegal occupation and in particular against the settlements. The people of Burin decided to fight back by creating “facts on the ground”, mirroring Israel’s illegal settlement policy.
Along with about 250 people involved in this action, we helped carry material and set up several tent structures on a hill which is village land but has been inaccessible to Palestinians for a number of months due to the illegal settlement of Har Brakha. A handful of soldiers arrived at the scene immediately after the action began, apparently alerted by the settlers. The initial atmosphere among us was full of energy and enthusiasm, as people continued to carry up materials and build tent structures, undeterred by the onlooking soldiers. Among much singing, chanting and flag-waving, the village was officially declared open by Palestinian activist leaders and named Al-Manatir, after the traditional stone huts Palestinians built in their agricultural lands, which were used as shelter for the watchmen of the fields. Gradually, however, IOF reinforcements began to arrive at the scene, as did settlers from Har Brakha. Soon, scuffles broke out between settlers who were clearly mad with rage and determined to tear down newly set-up Al-Manatir and attack us, and the army, who was desperately holding them back to prevent escalation. Following further military reinforcements, most settlers left the scene and instead went to attack a house in Burin itself. Ugly scenes of violent clashes ensued, with the army mostly looking on and doing little to deter the settlers. A 17-year old Palestinian was shot in the leg by live ammunition fired by a settler.
Settlers and the army on the scene
Meanwhile, things were also heating up back in Al-Manatir where soldiers soon began firing teargas, sound grenades and rubber bullets to disperse the crowds. Forced to retreat due to the strong effects of the teargas, we would run back to take cover somewhere and recover from the gas, and then bravely march forward again to face the IOF anew. For a couple to a few minutes we would chant, wave flags and even perform some dabke (traditional Palestinian folk dance), until the army would force us to retreat again by firing stunt grenades and teargas. This pattern continued for about two hours, during which dozens of people were injured, mostly from being hit by teargas canisters and sound grenades, whilst many more severely suffered from the effects of the teargas. Four Palestinians were also arrested; probably the most heart-breaking scene I witnessed today was an activist being brutally dragged away by four soldiers, who repeatedly kicked him with their heavy boots as he lay on the ground near unconscious towards the end.
View of Burin from Al-Manatir
The IOF forces became increasingly hostile and aggressive, not only using weapons but also brutally pushing back people and threatening us with arrest, causing some people, especially female residents of Burin, to leave the protest. During the stand-off with the army we were gradually pushed further and further back to the edge of the hill, eventually loosing all our tent structures. A desperate final attempt to hold on to Al-Manatir by sitting down on the ground failed after soldiers threw several sound grenades right at us as we were seated, hitting several of us. My memory becomes slightly shaky at this point, as I was under shock from being hit by a stunt grenade. Quickly, the protest dispersed as those of us still remaining at this point were being forced down the hill under continuous firing of teargas and stunt grenades.
Back down in Burin village, some activists returned home, whilst many decided to stay to show solidarity and offer support and protection should the army or settlers re-attack. We had time to rest a little, introduce ourselves to one another and exchange experiences and opinions on what had just happened. People shared food they had brought, and various kind village folks invited us in for drinks. Although we were exhausted by the intensity of the events and shaken by all that had happened, the overall atmosphere seemed to be one of contentment and pride that we had managed to stand our ground and put up a good fight for a considerable amount of time. We had been sitting on a village family’s veranda, sipping coffee, chatting, exchanging photos and videos for about half an hour, when suddenly a teargas canister landed right in our middle, causing us to quickly jump up and take cover somewhere. What ensued was another couple of hours of fierce attack on Burin village by th IOF. Soon the village mosque was completely filled with teargas after some of its windows were broken by the canisters fired. The whole downtown area soon became inaccessible, and people were forced to leave their houses and take cover somewhere further up in the village. I can’t even begin to imagine what it must be like to not even be able to feel safe in your own home, because any time it could be attacked by soldiers or settlers. Whilst we were sitting out the attack further up in Burin, shebabs threw stones, the army kept firing back teargas and even various rounds of live ammunition, and the ambulance drove around feverishly picking up the injured. After about two hours, the army retreated and people were able to come out of hiding and return to their houses.
What do I take away from this day? To be honest, I will probably need a good few days to really digest all this. However, right now, I feel immense respect for the Palestinian people, their fighting spirit, deep courage and willingness to take great risks as they’re standing up for justice. I feel great hope in the power of non-violent resistance and popular grassroots movements. However, my heart is also heavy at the thought of the repercussions that our action will definitely have for the people of Burin. Already today, one hundred olive trees were cut down in revenge by settlers, and further acts of reprisal will certainly follow. Everyone expects the army to come raid the village tonight, beating up and arresting many residents.
I would like to close my account with the encouraging statement of Ghassan Najar form Burin: “Today Burin has broken the fear barrier: we went to our land despite the military’s orders and we will continue to do so.” May the courage and determination of the people of Burin and all Palestinians continue to grow as they fight the illegal Israeli occupation until victory ensues and peace, dignity and justice triumph in this land.
Video of a youth Palestinian brutally attacked and arrested by IOF in Al-Manatir
Katie W. is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed)
