This morning in Al-Walaja local Palestinian residents supported by Israeli and international solidarity activists nonviolently resisted the construction of the Apartheid Wall by blocking the work of a bulldozer.
Of the sixty protestors, fourteen people were arrested – six Palestinians and eight internationals.
Three were also injured as Israeli police forcefully and violently removed protestors from their blockade of the Caterpiller bulldozer, beating them with their rifle butts. One of the injured was a seven year old child. Numerous other people suffered chemical burns when the police used pepper spray on them.
The bulldozer was clearing ground to make way for construction of the Apartheid Wall which Israel continues to construct despite the ruling by the International Court of Justice ruling on July 9th 2004 that it was illegal and should be dismantled.
This evening those arrested were reportedly released and making their way home.
9 June 2010 Demonstrators walk up the swath of dust, which was recently forest and farmlandA group of over 30 demonstrators came to Al-Walaja today at 7am to obstruct the path of a bulldozer being used to construct the illegal annexation wall. Three demonstrators were arrested during the action; the legitimacy of two of the arrests remains in question. Among the arrested was former Yale Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh.
The activists were successful in stopping construction for an hour by chaining themselves to the bulldozer.
Qumsiyeh was arrested after the demonstrators decided to disperse upon being notified that fellow Israeli activist Yotem Wolfe would not be released. Wolfe had been arrested after being forcibly removed from a bulldozer to which he was chained by the neck. Qumsiyeh, the only Palestinian present at the action, was pulled aside, arrested and taken in for interrogation under the unspecified pretense that he was considered a “security threat.”
Israeli activist Shay Halatzi was also arrested under the allegation of “being rude” by insulting the unit as he protested Dr. Qumsiyeh’s detention.
Demonstrators were successful in interrupting illegal wall construction by locking onto the bulldozerBoth arrests occurred after the morning demonstration was over and activists were being forced to leave the area. The soldiers threatened the entire group with arrests, after the group had dispersed from the area where the activists had interrupted the work of the bulldozers for approximately 40 minutes by chaining two activists to the apparatus.
At one point during the demonstration, the Israeli contractor in charge of the site attempted to attack the demonstrators and had to be forcibly restrained by the military.
After being forced by soldiers onto the village roads, the crowd then staged a peaceful sit-down demonstration as soldiers prevented demonstrators from moving.
Qumsiyeh was released at 14:00. The Israeli activists were released at 16:30 with conditions preventing them from coming within 500 meters of the wall’s construction sites.
This is another stage in the construction of the wall that will completely surround Al Walaja. Passing within 5 meters of houses, the wall will separate the village from Jerusalem and leave just one exit, a tunnel to Beit Jala.
The claim that the wall, illegal under international law, is being built for security reasons was refuted when retired colonel Dani Tirza, who designed the wall’s route, was hired by the “Givat Yael” company. Givat Yael plans to build a 14,000-housing-unit settlement around the village.
Tirza criticized the route, writing that it takes land from the planned settlement and that there is no security need for it.
Villagers hold a seated protest in Al WalajaAl Walaja village, close to Bethlehem, faces the threat of being totally isolated from the surrounding countryside by an apartheid wall which is currently under construction. When it is finished the only access villagers will have to the outside world is through a tunnel which can be opened or closed at the whim of the Israeli authorities. This nightmarish prospect is being protested each Sunday by the villagers, supported by Israeli and international sympathisers.
This Sunday, 23 May, approximately 70 protesters attempted to march from the village to the site of the wall’s construction. Before they could reach their objective they were met by a squad of a dozen border police who ordered them to disperse. They chose instead to sit in the roadway, where they were addressed in English and Arabic by a resistance leader, who emphasised the justness of their cause.
On this Sunday the Israeli troops did not resort to the use of tear gas or other violent methods of crowd control. Unfortunately for them, they were standing upwind of the demonstrators and ran the risk of gassing themselves rather than their prospective victims. One of them, “The big Russian with the red hair” – as he was described to me by a nearby Israeli journalist – appeared anxious to wreak some havoc. One of his companions, by contrast, seemed to indicate by his body language that he wished he could have been somewhere else.
Finally, the need to be somewhere else motivated the protesters to peacefully disperse. The only casualty of the day was the magnificent landscape as the bulldozers continued to rip apart the earth for Al Walaja’s unwanted and illegal prison wall.
Beit Jala
A small group of protestors was successful in interrupting construction of the illegal apartheid wallBeit Jala’s weekly demonstration against the illegal apartheid wall also took place this Sunday. Despite having to clamber down a precipitous terraced hillside to reach the site, a group of committed activists managed to seat themselves in the path of the leading bulldozer. By clinging determinedly to one another they managed to resist being dragged away into detention for upwards of an hour. They hung on even when the operator of the bulldozer put their lives at risk when he resumed excavating within a metre of them.
The exasperation of the troops at failing to remove the demonstrators
found its expression in detonating percussion grenades and throwing tear gas canisters amongst the assembled journalists and photographers. Nevertheless, the most determined of them managed to hang in and record the event until the last demonstrator had been arrested, handcuffed and carried to the waiting police vehicle.
The six activists- all Israeli nationals- who were arrested were
released the same day. The final act of violence by the Israeli
military was to enter the village and tear gas a group of
Palestinian children who had taken no part in the demonstration. I
suppose it helped to relieve their frustrations.
Demonstrators peacefully block bulldozer. Credit: Oren Ziv/Activestills.orgSitting peacefully in front of the formidable D9 Caterpillar bulldozer, demonstrators were successful today in temporarily halting construction of Israel’s illegal annexation wall. In the village of Al Walaja, approximately 20 Palestinian, Israeli and international activists disrupted work on the wall for nearly 30 minutes. Highlighting the systematic racism of Israeli apartheid, soldiers specifically targeted Palestinian participants. While internationals and Israelis were virtually ignored, Palestinians were brutally beaten and pepper sprayed, resulting in three hospitalizations. Three Palestinians and one international were arrested.
Palestinians being brutally beaten. Credit: Oren Ziv/Activestills.orgAfter gathering in the village, demonstrators walked down a hillside to access the massive, dusty swath of ex-farmland where the wall is to be built. Sitting in front of the bulldozer and linking arms, the action proved successful in delaying construction of the wall which will claim nearly all of Al Walaja’s land. Approximately 15 soldiers and border police then attacked the non-violent demonstrators, separating Palestinians from the group and pepper spraying some directly in the eyes while beating others. After arresting three Palestinians, Israeli military returned to violently rip apart international and Israeli activists. Several reported minor injuries, and one international was arrested. Currently three Palestinians remain hospitalized. Beatings resulted in one broken rib and one broken leg, and a third victim has impaired hearing due to receiving pepper spray directly in the ear. Of those arrested, at least one had been pepper sprayed directly in the eyes without receiving proper medical treatment afterwards.
This is third time bulldozers have been stopped in Al Walaja, which is located between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. After 1967, the village was annexed into Jerusalem, although villagers did not receive city residency. The settlements Gilo and Har Gilo are located on Al Walaja land, although villagers cannot build on their own lots. Because the village is in “Area C”, building permits must be granted by the Israeli government. Between 2000 and 2007, over 94% of permits were denied. Upon completion of the wall, Al Walaja will be almost entirely trapped, with access limited to just two guarded checkpoints. Over 5,000 dunums will be annexed into Jerusalem by the wall, virtually all of the village’s farmland.
Non-violent demonstrations against the apartheid are growing
Between Friday and Sunday, more than 600 demonstrators protested the apartheid, land confiscation and the illegal wall in eight West Bank locations. These weekly demonstrations reflect the growing momentum of popular non-violent resistance, despite violent responses by the Israeli military.
Bil’in
Four were detained in Bil’in, including two Al-Jazeera reporters, as demonstrators gathered for the popular weekly protest against the Israeli apartheid and illegal wall. After speeches given in honor of International Workers’ Day, demonstrators marched towards the wall, where they were met with tear gas fired by Israeli soldiers. Soldiers entered the village several times in attempts to make arrests. Two were injured by flying tear gas canisters, just a week after Emad Rezqa suffered a fractured skull in Bil’in from a gas canister fired directly at his head. The demonstration was one of many global actions this week calling for the Irish multinational firm CRH to divest from its links to Nesher Cement. Nesher is the only Israeli cement company, meaning that it supplies cement for construction of the wall, settlements and other infrastructures of apartheid, all illegal under international law.
Ni’lin
Approximately 50 demonstrators gathered for midday prayers before walking to the Western end of the illegal wall which bounds the town of Ni’lin on two sides. After facing Israeli military jeeps on the opposite side of the wall, the demonstration returned to the village in response to the invasion of a military jeep. The jeep retreated, at which point demonstrators returned to the wall and were met with a barrage of tear gas. Since May 2008, five demonstrators have been killed in Ni’lin, and American ISM activist Tristan Anderson was critically injured 13 months ago.
Qarrawat Bani Hassan
Nearly surrounded by settlements and facing continual land confiscation, villagers from Qarrawat Bani Hassan gathered with visiting Palestinians and internationals for a weekly work party. Springs near the village, dating to Roman times, have repeatedly been vandalized by Israelis from the nearby illegal settlements, most recently on March 8th, 2010. Although it is believed that the most recent destruction of the springs was in retaliation for the weekly gatherings, villagers have not been deterred and continue in their work to build a park near the springs.
This Friday, workers planted trees and built a trail. A past mayor of Al Bireh attended and spoke to volunteers about the role of community work in building cohesive resistance to the occupation, based on his experiences in the late 1960’s.
Al Ma’asara
A group of about 25 demonstrated in the agrarian village of Al Ma’asara, near Bethlehem, after midday prayers on Friday. Speeches were delivered in Arabic, Hebrew and English to the crowd of Palestinians, Israelis and Internationals. Soldiers obstructed the road with razor wire during the demonstration, preventing cars from passing. This included an ill woman traveling to a nearby clinic.
Al Walaja
Protesting the illegal wall which will completely surround Al Walaja and confiscate nearly all of the village’s land, approximately 60 Palestinian, Israeli and International demonstrators gathered Friday. Speeches were delivered by local and regional residents after the demonstrators marched across the bulldozered swath of land. Bulldozing recently began for the wall, which will claim nearly 5000 dunums of farmland and separate the village from nearby Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
