17 December 2010 | International Solidarity Movement
Shebab injured by teargas projectile Friday, at the weekly demonstration held in the village of An Nabi Saleh, a young Palestinian was shot by a tear gas canister in the back of his head. Falling down, he was further injured on the front of his head.
The military continued to shoot tear gas into the area, without regard for the people coming to help the young unconscious man. It took over 45 minutes before an ambulance arrived, as the army stopped it and prevented them from entering the village. By the time the ambulance arrived, the injured man had regained consciousness. Leaving the village, the ambulance was stopped twice more. The man is now being treated at the hospital in Ramallah.
For one year the people of Nabi Saleh have been protesting the occupation, the illegal settlement, and massive land confiscations from their village. In response to village youth confronting the soldiers, each week the Israeli army shoots tear gas into the village and closes the checkpoint for several hours.
This Friday at 11 o’clock, 6 jeeps entered the village, bringing many soldiers into the village. After midday prayer the protest began with villagers walking down the main road through the village. Demonstrators attempted to cross the street to reach the spring located on village land but occupied by the settlers of Halamish. The villagers have been denied access to this spring for many years, which had traditionally served as a water source for the two neighboring Palestinian villages.
The soldiers began throwing sound bombs between demonstrators, and the demo split up: Israeli and international activists stayed close to the army, and the shebabs engaged in a confrontation with soldiers in the village.
At one point a media team interviewed the commander of the army troops. When an Israeli activist asked them to interview someone from the Palestinian side, they refused.
The teargassing continued until after sunset, when it was no longer light enough to see anything. One year after the first demonstration in Nabi Salah, the Israeli army still responds to their non-violent resistance with excessive force, making it the most violent and dangerous protest in the whole west bank.
25 November 2010 | International Solidarity Movement
In the early morning hours of November, the 25th, a night raid took place in the village of An Nabi Saleh. The four Soldiers entered the village at about 2:30 am with two jeeps, searching the house of Bassem Tamimi. Asked for the reason of their coming they claimed “it was their job” to come on a nightly basis, due to the weekly demonstrations held in the village since December 2009.
They searched the house, opening cupboards and spreading the family’s belongings on the floor, without looking for anything in particular or finding anything. The family and two internationals that were at that time present were asked for their passports and threatened. The soldiers refused to speak in English and Arabic, insisting on speaking Hebrew in spite of it not being understood by everyone. The military tried to stop the taking of any photos or videos of the incident.
They left at about 3 am, but not without mocking the family and announcing they would “come every night” and cause further problems. It became clear that the soldiers target Bassem Tamimi because they consider him the main initiator of the weekly protests. It has not been the first night raid in the village.
14 November 2010 | International Solidarity Movement
Al Nabi Saleh demonstrators assaulted with high velocity tear gas canisters and rubber bullets
High-velocity tear gas canister used in an Nabi SalehThe weekly demonstration at Al Nabih Saleh took place again this Friday, one day after the six year anniversary of Yasser Arafat’s death.
One young boy was shot in the hand with a rubber bullet, and tear gas canisters were shot throughout the whole demonstration to prevent demonstrators from reaching the village spring near the illegal settlement Halamish. Some canisters were shot directly at demonstrators. High velocity tear gas canisters were used despite their illegality for the danger they pose: high velocity tear gas canisters have killed and seriously injured many demonstrators in the past.
The demonstration was supposed to be preceded by a large celebration commemorating the legacy of Yasser Arafat. However, the military closed off all entrances to the village two hours before the demonstration, making it very hard for outside guests to make it to the event. Some people, including ISM volunteers, had to take a 30 minute detour through the olive groves, around the soldiers in order to enter the village. Other visitors were tear gassed when they attempted to enter the village through this alternative route.
Even with all these complications the celebration had about 200 people in attendance, and it was attended by all including internationals and Israelis. Children also marched, and chanted pro-Arafat chants. Right after the celebration, the demonstration started, at around 1 pm and continued until after sundown.
Bil’in marks the 6th anniversary of Arafat’s death Photos by Hamde Abu Rahma
Bil'in on 6th anniversary of Arafat's deathToday’s demonstration in Bil’in was joined by a large number of Palestinians, Israelis and internationals. Members of the Fatah party were also present. The demonstration followed a week of constant night-raids by Israeli soldiers searching for the anti-wall village activist, Ashraf Khatib.
The protesters walked together towards the Apartheid Wall, carrying posters of Yasser Arafat, in commemoration of the Fatah leader who passed away six years ago. Speeches were held by members of the Fatah movement, while Israeli soldiers in the background prepared to attack the peaceful demonstrators.
The speakers were Sultan Abu Al Enanan from the Fatah movement, Kays Abu Leyla from the Executive Committee of PLO and the political office of the Democratic Front and Basel Monsur from the Popular Committee in Bil’in. They all promised to stay strong as Arafat would have wanted them to be, and to fight the occupation together.
Bil'in flooded with teargasEven before the majority of the protesters moved forward, soldiers began firing tear gas from their position on the road leading to the village. Immediately the area was covered with tear gas, with canisters flying into the crowd from different directions. In response a few youngsters threw stones to the Israeli soldiers, in symbolic resistance to their violence. The soldiers moved into the field and continued to fire rounds of gas, chasing people back into the village. At one point live ammunition was fired, causing fear and the retreat of any protesters remaining in the area.
Tear gas canisters set fires on the ground in several places, which were put out by some protesters before they spread. The demonstration lasted for about two hours.
The Popular Committee and the people of Bil’in thanks their international and Israeli supporters for standing side by side with them in their struggle against Israel’s occupation.
New anti-wall demonstration in Al Walaja
Demonstrators march to the wall in Al-WalajaFor Friday, 11 November 2010, the local committee in Al-Walaja (a little village half an hour from Bethlehem) organized a peaceful protest to draw attention to the illegal building of a new Israeli settlement. The village is surrounded by settlements, so the Israeli government has decided to build a wall around the village with only one entrance.
The villagers won´t accept this without resistance. Last week this issue was in the supreme court but nothing was decided. The government has continued to build, so on Friday the inhabitants of Al Wlaja held a demonstration.
Friday’s demonstration passed along the wall and the people demanded the freedom to live without the wall or occupation. On the place where the wall would stand in the future, a villager held a speech about the circumstances of living in Qualqilya. Soon the Israeli Army came with 4 jeeps and soldiers walked with the people but there were no clashes. The people only stood in front of the soldiers and shouted their contentions to them. The demonstration ended after one hour.
The new settlement affects Al-Walaja in several ways: Not only does it encroach directly on existing Palestinian homes, but it towers over the village, and when the wall is completed it will isolate the village from agricultural areas and other parts of the community. A final tragic outcome of the wall and the new settlement is that if they’re completed Al-Walaja will be reduced in size from the 20,000 durhams of 1967 to a mere 2,000 durhams. Developers building the new settlement have not obtained permission to build, whereas the Palestinians have been denied for more than a year permission to complete homes nearby.
29 October, 2010 | International Solidarity Movement
22 people injured, 5 still in hospital, at increasingly violent An Nabi Saleh Demonstration by Henni
Many shebab, two journalists and a girl were injured on Friday at the weekly demonstration in An Nabi Saleh. Villagers had employed a new strategy in response to the increasing violence of soldiers and border police.
Demonstrators shot with pepper spray at An Nabi Saleh
Demonstrators split up and approached the road from the two opposite hills divided by the valley. The side with most of the shebab was blocked with massive amounts of teargas and attacked by border police. From the other side, most of the internationals, women, and children entered the road and continued the demonstration.
Police shouted and attacked some Palestinians with pepper spray directly in their faces. Soldiers attempted to arrest an international, saying “we want to talk with you.” With the support of other internationals and Palestinians he was de-arrested.
Border police declared the road “a closed military zone” without showing any paper or map as proof. Demonstrators asked to look at the paper, but the commander “was not able to find it”. Soldiers gave people 10 minutes to leave, threatening that everyone would be arrested otherwise. The demonstrators remained and argued with the soldiers, but the only response was a round of sound bombs shot directly at them.
Border police isolated the internationals and most of the children and women of the village from the shebab, occupying three houses in the village center and clashing with the shebab for several hours.
They shot two Palestinian journalists, leaving one injured on the arm and the other on the leg. Border police and soldiers continued their attack on the shebab until after sunset, pushing the clash to the olive fields surrounding the village, using rubber bullets and tear gas.10-year-old girl hit with rubber bullet at an Nabi Saleh
At this same time, the internationals and women were attacked with heavy amounts of tear gas. About sunset, one 10-year-old girl was injured by a rubber bullet. In total, 22 people were injured, and 5 are still in the hospital.
These weekly demonstrations have been taking place since January, 2010. One man in the village said “We want to build a strategy for all Palestine to find a way to resist against the occupation.” The village has a strong story of resistance: During the first Intifada almost half of its inhabitants were in jail. Women always participate in the Demonstration and act independently.
Ni’lin demonstrators cut away part of electric fence by Stella
Climbing the wall to raise the Palestinian flag
Friday, demonstrators in Ni’lin succeed in cutting away part of the electric fence that annexes land onto the nearby illegal settlement Modi’in Ilit. Around one hundred Palestinian, Israeli and international activists gathered under the olive trees just outside the village and, after the noonday prayer, marched through the village’s land towards the Apartheid Wall.
In protest against the illegal settlements that have already stolen most of their land and that prevent them from farming what little is left, some youth from the village threw stones symbolically against the Apartheid Wall. A few minutes after the demonstration reached the wall, the army responded with tear gas. As the wind was often blowing toward the wall, the soldiers frequently got a taste of the tear gas themselves.
Some protesters then managed to cut a part of the electric fence. At that point, soldiers came out from the gate to check what was happening, and the protesters retreated. Quite surprisingly the soldiers didn’t follow the protesters as they usually do, but went back to hide behind the concrete slabs of the wall and continue to shoot tear gas.
The demonstration finished around 3 p.m. with no injures or arrests.
Soldiers hiding behind the concrete prove of the Apartheid
22 October 2010 | International Solidarity Movement
Nabi Saleh
Today in the village of An-Nabi Salah, the weekly non-violent demonstration took place against the illegal settlement Hamish. Unlike other villages taking part in non-violent resistance, many women, young girls and children participate in the protest. Today, there was a child demonstration. A commemoration also took place in order to remember the massacre during the second Intifada in a village where the children went to school.
The soldiers and border police started out by shooting teargas into the village to prevent people from going to the demonstration. They also entered the village and shot at the child demonstration.
Every Thursday the soldiers walk around the village in preparation for the Friday demonstration. Yesterday they looked for one house which they occupied today, because it’s a good location for watching what’s going on in the village and shoot easily. The people asked the soldiers not to enter the house, and eventually they agreed not to enter. However, a teargas canister was shot into another house, starting a fire. Thankfully, nobody was in the house.
They also shot some gas into a houses in the middle of the village. One woman was made to vomit and could only move her arms and legs in a strange way, . Afterwards, people resumed the demonstration and started singing and shouting slogans against the Israeli occupation. When the demonstrators went back into the village, teenage boys started to throw stones . Teenage boys started a riot and the army proceeded to throw an excessive amount of tear gas. Some people were injured by the gas and had problems with breathing. Three Palestinians were arrested for some hours but then released.
Al Ma’asara
The demonstration held today in Al Ma’asara marked four years of weekly protests as part of the popular struggle against the Israeli occupation, the confiscation of land through construction of settlements and the Apartheid wall. Hundreds of participants from France, Italy, Spain, England and other countries stood alongside Palestinians peacefully protesting Israel’s failure to comply with international law. Also present were Israeli activists from Anarchists Against the Wall, Active Stills and Ta’ayush as well as Luisa Morgantini, former vice President of European Parliament.
The Israeli forces stopped the demonstration long before reaching its destination and immediately made use of sound bombs and tear gas in an attempt to disperse the activists, despite the peaceful nature of the demonstration. An older French activist was injured when a high velocity tear gas canister shot into the air by the Israeli forces struck him in the head.
Two Israeli activists were detained after crossing the line formed by the soldiers. The demonstrators held fast and refused to leave for another hour until the two activists were released.
The residents of Al Ma’asara together with international supporters declared their intentions to continue the struggle to defend their rights.
Bil’in
Bil'in
Three protesters were injured from tear gas inhalation today at the weekly Bil’in demonstration against the Apartheid wall. The march, called for by the Popular Committee Against the Wall in Bil’in, included dozens of Palestinian villagers, alongside Israeli and international solidarity activists.
The participants in the march waved Palestinian flags, and held pictures of prisoners of the popular resistance, whilst chanting slogans condemning the Israeli policies of occupation, settlement and the repression of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. The demonstrators also chanted in condemnation of Israel’s policy of ethnic cleansing Palestinians from Jerusalem, as can be seen in Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah, as well as calling for the siege on Gaza to be lifted.
The Popular Committee Against the Wall in Bil’in also denounced the persecution of its activists, led by Abdullah Abo Rahma and Adeeb Abo Rahma. It considers the trials against them biased as they are defenders of their land which was illegally annexed by the Apartheid wall. The Popular Committee considers the struggle against the wall a legitimate and legal one and calls upon the international community and international human rights organizations to stand next to the leaders and activists of the Popular resistance.
The march headed towards the wall, where the Israeli Occupation Forces were waiting. When protesters attempted to cross to the land behind the wall, which belongs to the villagers of Bi’lin, the Israeli army fired sound bombs, tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets at the crowd. This led to the wounding of three marchers, including 8-year old Lama Abdullah Abo Rahma who suffered from severe difficulty in breathing. Mohammed Shawkat Al-Khateeb,17, and Ahmed Abdel Fattah Bernat ,17, were among the worst affected of dozens of others suffering from tear gas inhalation.
Before the march delegations from Spain, France and Britain met with the members of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and settlement at the headquarters of the International Solidarity Movement in Bil’in. The delegations listened to a detailed explanation by the Popular Committee about the experience in Bil’in of non-violent popular resistance in the past five and a half years and the role of international solidarity in the popular resistance in Bil’in.
