Yesterday the village of An Nabi Saleh was transformed into a war zone, with Palestinian villagers and about fifteen International Peace activists trapped within the village behind a checkpoint for five-and-a-half hours. Soldiers shot at these non-violent activists with live ammunition, rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas cannons, and sound bombs. One Palestinian man was shot twice in the leg, and several children needed medical treatment from exposure to teargas inside their homes.
Noon yesterday 15 internationals and 40 villagers marched through the town toward the village spring which borders land confiscated by Israeli Settlers. Soldiers were waiting at the bottom of the hill and immediately shot teargas and sound bombs at the unarmed protesters. Demonstrators dispersed to recover from large amounts of teargas.
Soldiers moved up the side of the village, and responded to stone-throwing with more teargas. Villagers fought to keep the soldiers out of the village, but were forced to retreat to the far-end of the village. At 1:30 pm teargas was shot directly into a house with residents still inside. The Palestinian Medical Relief Society rushed into the house and carried out children who were then treated by paramedics.
For a short time the battle was quiet as soldiers retreated and set up a checkpoint at the village entrance. Demonstrators sat on the hillside and watched the soldiers peacefully.
At 3:30pm, in response to symbolic stone throwing, soldiers shot at villagers and demonstrators with live ammunition and tear gas. A scuffle between Palestinians emerged in response to frustration over road blocks, and soldiers disguised as civilians emerged. Villagers surrounded them and the civilian cops shot live ammunition from inside the crowd. People quickly dispersed and internationals rushed to the scene to see if anyone was injured. They where forced to retreat when soldiers shot rubber covered steel bullets at them. Three Palestinians and one Israeli activist where arrested by civilian cops. According to one report, the soldiers used tazers to subdue the Palestinians while arresting them.
Soldiers chased people far back up in the village and shot teargas cannons and sound bombs. At 5:00 soldiers shot more live ammunition and then left the area. A Palestinian man was hit twice in the leg. When paramedics reached him, he had no feeling in his hands. One report stated that two children were also hit.
At 5:30 the international peace activists were able to leave the village again. Several of the them suffered minor injuries.
Report on Al Ma’asara
by London
Friday at noon ten Palestinian villagers from the town of Al Ma’asara and twenty internationals recognized the first day of the olive harvest by marching through the village
to protest the annexation of 860 acres from their land by the Apartheid Wall in 2006. Within minutes of reaching the soldiers, these unarmed demonstrators were shot with tear gas and sound bombs. Demonstrators remained in the area chanting and giving speeches for 45 minutes. One international was hit with a teargas canister which exploded on him, but he was not seriously injured.
Brutal suppression of the Palestinian popular struggle continues: A Palestinian man was shot in the leg with live ammunition in Bil`in, while live rounds were also fired in Ni`lin and An-Nabi Saleh, where rubber-coated steel bullets were fired at children. In Beit Ummar a Palestinian man was beaten unconscious by Israeli forces yet only an innocent French peace activist was arrested for assault. Demonstrators marched around the Old City in Hebron, and burned settlement goods in Al-Ma`sara, showing their support and solidarity to the people of Silwan where a Palestinian man was killed by a private settler guard on Wednesday.
Friday demonstrations
Palestinian and international demonstrators carry Ashraf after he is shot in the leg
Bil`in
On Friday, Bil`in resident Ashraf Al-Khatib was shot in the leg with a 0.22” caliber live bullet at the weekly demonstration against the illegal apartheid wall. An international nonviolent activist was also hit in the shoulder with a low-flying tear gas canister, and the hundreds of other participants were attacked with huge quantities of tear gas.
The weekly protest is against land theft by the illegal apartheid wall and the Israeli occupation in general. This week, the marchers also expressed solidarity with Palestinians in East Jerusalem (al-Quds) where a Silwan resident was shot dead by an Israeli settler security guard on Wednesday morning.
Two hundred Palestinians accompanied by around thirty international and Israeli activists assembled at the village’s Mosque after noon and marched towards the apartheid wall, chanting “no, no, to the wall” and “Free! Free! Palestine.” Around forty Israeli soldiers ran out of the gate to the settlement as they saw the march approaching, blockading the road.
Protesters marched up to the soldiers and confronted them, demanding to be allowed to walk on the village’s land, which even the Israeli High Court conceded was Palestinian in 2007. The soldiers did not allow anyone through, using their shields to aggressively push back the peaceful demonstrators. One Palestinian activist tried to fasten a poster to a soldier’s shield saying “Free Adeeb Abu Rahma,” referring to one of Bil`in’s four political prisoners held by Israel for organizing the weekly protests. The commander was seen indicating to his soldiers that he wants them to target Ashraf Al-Khatib.
A Palestinian demonstrator holds a poster against a soldier’s shield.
The group remonstrated with the soldiers for thirty minutes until a youth threw a stone and the soldiers responded by firing huge quantities of tear gas at the peaceful crowd, many of whom proceeded to suffer breathing difficulties. One international activist was hit in the shoulder with a low-flying tear gas canister. A group of youths began throwing stones towards the soldiers, and three photographers stood next to the soldiers were hit.
Ashraf Al-Khatib, a Bil`in resident aged 31, was shot with 0.22” caliber live bullet which hit him in the lower leg. No warning shots were heard beforehand. Unable to stand, he was hurriedly carried by Palestinian and international demonstrators towards the village as he bled heavily from his calf. When Al-Khatib first fell, all of the soldiers ran forwards in an attempt to arrest him, but the demonstrators were able to successfully load him into a car before the soldiers caught them. As the car drove away the soldiers retreated, and the demonstrators walked back to the village, the demonstration lasting around one hour in total.
Upon Al-Khatib’s arrival at hospital, it was found the 0.22” caliber round had smashed the bone in his leg.
An-Nabi Saleh
An-Nabi Saleh’s weekly demonstration was yet again met with violent repression from the Israeli armed forces. The protestors numbered around 100, including internationals and Israeli activists.
The demonstration began slightly earlier this week – directly after noon prayers – and as such the Israeli military had not arrived by the time the protestors began to march. Due to this, the majority of the villagers managed to reach much further down the main road of their village than would normally be permitted. Some protestors managed to reach the spot which is the aim of the demonstration – the village’s natural spring, which has been confiscated by the nearby illegal Halamish settlement.
Shortly after soldiers blocked the remaining protesters’ path, many of the younger children began throwing stones at the military’s armoured jeeps in a symbolic act of resistance against the Israeli army’s continuous invasion of their village and their increasing violence towards its residents.
The soldiers from the five or six jeeps which had entered the village at this point then began to shoot tear gas projectiles and percussion grenades directly at the children, and also fired several rounds of rubber-coated steel bullets both as warning shots and directly at the children. Many of those involved in the demonstration also report that the soldiers fired 0.22” calibre live ammunition at this point, again both as a warning and straight at the children, many of whom were under 13 years old.
The demonstration was then suspended for some time as the jeeps retreated, but returned after roughly half an hour, when the soldiers positioned themselves at the three main entrances to the village, and resumed shooting the aforementioned weapons at any visible children upon the slightest sight of a stone.
This continued for several hours, and the demonstration ended at approximately 6pm, when the military finally retreated from the village. One Israeli activist was detained at around 2pm, but was released before the end of the demonstration. None obtained serious injuries, although many children were badly bruised due to the military’s use of the weapons noted above, and countless protestors suffered severe tear gas inhalation.
The weekly demonstrations in An-Nabi Saleh have been taking place since 2009 in protest against Halamish settlement’s annexation of large amounts of the village’s land. Despite the violence used by the Israeli armed forces in order to repress these protests, Friday’s demonstration will be followed by an additional action on Saturday. The villagers, along with Israeli and international activists, will all attempt to reach the spring which was stolen from the village. Upon reaching the spring, they plan to reclaim it and rename it ‘Emily’s Spring’. This is in honour of Emily Henochowicz, the ISM volunteer who lost an eye after being shot in the face by an Israeli soldier with a tear gas projectile aimed directly at her. This occurred at a peaceful protest at Qalandiya checkpoint, held in response to the Israeli ‘Defense’ Force’s murder of nine civilians aboard the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in May. Many of those who helped Emily after she was hit were villagers from An-Nabi Saleh, and thus the action will be made in solidarity with an activist who lost an eye through standing in solidarity with Palestinians.
Ni`lin
Ni`lin protestors face live ammunition and heavy tear gas from the Israeli Army.
An international activist shields himself from tear gas canisters in Ni`lin
Following the Friday midday prayers about 50 protestors including international and Israeli activists marched to the apartheid wall where it penetrates the village on Ni`lin as part of a weekly demonstration against the building of the Wall and the annexation of Palestinian land for illegal settlement building. In addition to this the protestors were also condemning the killing of a 32 year old Palestinian man by a settler security guard in the Silwan neighbourhood in East Jerusalem two days before.
The protestors marched to the Apartheid Wall chanting Palestinian slogans and waving Palestinian flags. As the protestors arrived at the Wall they chanted through the loudspeakers and some of the Palestinian youth started symbolically throwing stones and banging on the apartheid wall. This was abruptly met by teargas from the Israeli army within the first ten minutes of the demonstration. As the tear gas was heavily fired in all directions from the other side of the wall the soldiers soon began chasing the demonstrators who then started to retreat towards the village across the rocky and tricky terrain. Amidst the chase a number of the protestors suffered from heavy tear gas inhalation and required assistance from the Red Crescent which was accompanying the protestors. The quantity of tear gas fired was so great it even affected the soldiers themselves.
Although the protestors were already retreating there were reports of live ammunition being fired at the non-violent protestors by the Israeli army in complete violation of international law. There were no reports of injuries or casualties. This would not be the first time live ammunition has been used against peaceful demonstrators in Ni’lin: Four Ni`lin residents have been murdered by the Israeli occupation forces, including a ten-year-old boy, and around 70 more people have been shot non-fatally with live ammunition. since the demonstrations began in 2004.
The village of Ni’lin continues to suffer daily from the disproportionate use of violence by the Israeli Army and the catastrophic economic situation following the building of the Apartheid Wall.
Al-Ma`sara
Demonstrators burn settlement produce in al-Ma`sara
On Friday in al-Ma’asara in the southern West Bank, around fifteen villagers were joined by around fifteen Israeli and international solidarity activists after noon prayers. Together, the demonstrators marched towards the entrance of al-Ma`asara, where their path was blocked by around a dozen Israeli soldiers and border police and three army jeeps. Villagers wore T-shirts reading, “Stop supporting Rami Levi, Stop Supporting Settlements” and carried cardboard boxes representing settlement products.
When the demonstrators moved to set the boxes on fire, Israeli forces threw sound bombs and at least one tear gas canister at the crowd. The sound bombs themselves set the boxes on fire, after which the protesters dispersed back to the village. The demonstration lasted about twenty minutes in total.
Saturday demonstrations
Beit Ummar
The regular weekly demonstration in the town of Beit Ummar near Hebron protests against the Israeli occupation, and against the theft of Beit its land by the illegal Israeli settlement of Karmei Tzur in particular. This Saturday the march also demonstrated against Rami Levy, an Israeli supermarket chain selling settlement produce, and commemorated the twenty-eighth anniversary of the massacre in the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut. Activists showed solidarity with the people of Silwan, the East Jerusalem neighbourhood where a man was shot dead by a settler security guard on Wednesday, and with Palestinian political prisoners – in particular 17-year-old Beit Ummar resident Yousef Abu Maria who has a serious medical condition.
The demonstration was attended by around 60 Palestinians accompanied by 15 international and Israeli activists. Setting off at 1 p.m., the march proceeded through the Palestinians’ land in the direction of the illegal settlement, where their path was blocked by Israeli soldiers who put a rope across the path and threatened to arrest anyone who crossed it. Some youths were not deterred and crossed the rope, at which point the soldiers fired tear gas and stun grenades at all of the protesters. Several tear gas canisters were fired directly at the demonstrators, in defiance of the Israeli army’s own regulations.
The protesters burned cardboard boxes representing settlement produce in the path leading towards Karmei Tzur. The soldiers attempted to arrest one Palestinian campaigner but international activists managed successfully to shield him. He was beaten badly enough to lose consciousness. It was at this point that innocent French activist Bruno de Ginestet-Puivert was arrested, and later told he was being held on suspicion of assaulting an officer. Eyewitnesses from the demonstration say this was not true and that de Ginestet-Puivert was targeted arbitrarily. An Associated Press photographer was also detained but released before the demonstration ended.
Hebron
The weekly protest in Hebron against the illegal settlements and the closure of Shuhada street began at 3 p.m. at the entrance to the Old City. This week the protesters were also there to condemn the killing of a 32 year old Palestinian man and the subsequent death of a 14 month old Palestinian child that had taken place in East Jerusalem.
The protest began with the chanting of Palestinian songs and the waving of Palestinian flags and the locals were joined by international and Israeli peace activists. As the demonstrators began to move further on the soldiers in their usual
manner quickly blockaded them and began pushing the non-violent demonstrators back. Many of the younger protesters, some as young as 5 years old, were caught between the armed soldiers and the rest of the protesters. The soldiers made no attempt restrain themselves when pushing back demonstrators much smaller and less strong than themselves. As the soldiers began moving forward the demonstrators sat down steadfastly and chanted ‘Free Free Palestine’ accompanied by drumming from the Israeli activists. The march then continued towards another Shuhada street entrance, making a stop below some of the illegal settlements built on top of the Palestinian buildings. These shops face daily harassment by the settlers living above them, including the throwing of garbage and dirty water on them, and many of these shopkeepers are now barely able to support themselves financially. The settlers began showering the demonstrators with dirty water and despite the determined chanting and drumming the demonstrators were soon met by soldiers pushing them out of the market. They used sound bombs and used excessive physical force against the demonstrators to push them away from the settlements.
The demonstration came to an end as the soldiers blockaded the entrance to the Old City but not without a last word from a few determined Palestinian children who symbolically threw stones towards the heavily armed soldiers.
An international activist from the Christian Peacemaker Team remonstrates with soldiers who’ve blocked a road in Hebron.
An-Nabi Saleh
In addition to the weekly protest against the theft of the village’s natural spring and surrounding land by the nearby illegally-built settlement Halamish, An-Nabi Saleh held a second demonstration this Saturday. This action was planned in order to reach the aforementioned spring, plant trees there, and rename it ‘Emily’s spring’ in honour of Emily Henochowicz, the ISM volunteer who lost an eye at a protest in May after being shot with a tear gas projectile aimed directly at her.
Despite the entirely peaceful nature of this action, the participants – numbering between 100 and 150 including internationals, Israeli activists and many Palestinian children – were met with a huge (and violent) military presence.
All entrances to the village were blocked by Israeli jeeps and armed soldiers, as were many of the checkpoints further away, in order to prevent the march from taking place. Many of those planning to attend the event were therefore unable to reach the village as a consequence, although some managed by climbing over hills and walking through valleys in order to avoid checkpoints. As a consequence, the events of the day, which were planned to start at 9am, did not begin until after 1pm.
The action began with speeches and Palestinian music, which were held in a giant tent, erected specifically for this occasion. Before the end of the speeches, however, several Israeli activists and a few Palestinians had been detained by the soldiers whilst attempting to take water to a family in the village whose path was blocked by the
military.
After the speeches finished, the group visited An-Nabi Saleh’s cultural centre, in where they viewed photographs taken from previous demonstrations, all of which were met with disproportionate violence by the Israeli armed forces.
The march to the spring began approximately half an hour after later, but the group passed by the demonstrators whose paths had been blocked by soldiers in order to join them on the march. After numerous attempted arrests, the soldiers seized four Israelis and one international without reason or explanation, who were taken to Halamish settlement’s military base in order to be interrogated. The group were held for roughly four hours, and were made to walk to the base over mountainous land for almost an hour despite their hands being tied together with plastic handcuffs. Two of those
arrested had their hands (illegally) tied behind their backs whilst being forced to climb hills. The two were thrown over soldiers’ shoulders and carried down the extremely steep and rocky terrain after requesting that their handcuffs be removed in order for them to be able support themselves should they fall.
In spite of attempts by the military to prevent the event in this way, the remaining marchers continued walking towards the spring, but were once again blocked by the military at the bottom of the main road up to the centre of the village. The group sat on the ground in front of the soldiers, singing and chanting for over an hour before returning back to the tent for traditional Dabka dancing, singing and speeches about the importance of the day’s events and those to come.
The methods used by the soldiers in order to stop this planned march attempted to prevent international support for and solidarity with the villagers of An Nabi Saleh and their protest against the illegal annexation of their land. Despite the demonstrators being unsuccessful in reaching the spring, however, it is clear that the demonstrations, along with international solidarity with the villagers and their cause, will not be crushed. The demonstrations will continue as usual next Friday.
Palestinian youths open the gate in Bil`in. Photo credit: Hamde Abu Rahma
Bil`in
On Friday, 17 September 2010, the people of Bil’in were joined by Israelis and Internationals to protest against the theft of land and the imprisonment by Abdullah and Adeeb Abu Rahma, Ibrahim Burnat and other political prisoners from Bil’in. The demonstration went on for one and a half hours and was met with large amounts of tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets. After initially firing tear gas from the military base and road, soldiers came through the gate and chased the protesters back towards the village.
This week’s protest called for the release of prisoners, who have been kept in jail under administrative detention (which is to say, without trial) and also the ones who have been victims of false charges and unjust trials in Israeli military courts. People were carrying masks of Abdallah Abu Rahma, who has been held in Ofer Military Prison since November, and is now in the sentencing phase of his trial after being convicted for “incitement”. Other people were wearing masks showing the faces of Gandhi and Martin Luther King. This is to show that Palestinian political prisoners enduring long sentences in Israeli prisons are peaceful activists, who are leading the non-violent struggle against the illegal Israeli occupation.
The soldiers initially fired tear gas from inside a military base near the illegal apartheid wall. One tear gas canister hit an Israeli protester, Tali Shapiro, in her leg, causing pain and bruising. The protesters retreated from the fence due to the tear gas but returned – a process that repeated several times until the soldiers came through the gate. They continued shooting tear gas and also fired rubber-coated steel bullets – shooting one Palestinian youth in the back.
After one and a half hours the demonstration ended and the participants walked back to the village. Abdallah Abu Rahma’s many friends and family are now awaiting the outcome of his sentencing, hoping he will not join the hundreds of political prisoners held in jail many years for taking part in the non violent struggle against the brutal Israeli occupation.
Al-Ma`sara
On Friday, around fifty Palestinians accompanied by thirteen international and Israeli activists assembled in the West Bank village of Al-Ma`sara near Bethlehem. The weekly demonstration is against the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine and against the land theft by the nearby Gush Etzion settlement bloc, and this week there was also commemoration of the anniversary of the 1982 massacre in the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut, Lebanon.
Still within the village and far from the illegal settlement (which is built on Palestinian land anyway), the procession was stopped by the Israeli army. The soldiers showed a paper declaring the area a “closed military zone” and threatened to arrest anyone who had not left in sixty seconds. Immediately they began to throw sound grenades and tear gas canisters directly into the group of demonstrators. The group retreated some metres and then soon returned, repeating this five times. In each instance the soldiers threw many sound grenades and tear gas canisters.
Several Palestinian, Israeli and international activists spoke out at the demonstration for around twenty minutes, condemning the occupation and the apartheid regulations it entails for the Palestinians, before returning to the village.
An-Nabi Saleh
There were approximately 60 Palestinians and 20 international and Israeli activists at this week’s nonviolent protest, which began shortly after the noon prayer in the small village of An-Nabi Saleh. As usual, many children took part in the demonstration, and as usual it was they who bore the brunt of the Israeli military’s violence.
The protestors began by attempting to gain access to the spring which was stolen from the village by settlers from the illegal Halamish (Neve Zuf) settlement. This attempt was blocked by military jeeps and armed soldiers. Despite this difficulty, the demonstrators managed to enter on to the road leading to the spring, but many were prevented from continuing further.
The majority of the women and children then managed to move further down the road, and sat and chanted and sung when they were stopped by the soldiers once again. The rest of the group mirrored this action at the top of the road, and later the two groups united and sat in peaceful protest until they were forcefully removed from the road.
The demonstration then moved back up the hill into the village, at which point some of the children began to throw stones towards the blockade. The military responded by chasing the children up the hill and attempting to make arrests (although many of the children were under the age of 13, and therefore not legally adults in the eyes of the Israeli courts).
Some sound bombs and tear gas canisters were thrown at this point, but the soldiers did not shoot tear gas projectiles until much later on in the demonstration- perhaps due to the presence of media crew from the BBC.
Both soldiers and jeeps then made their way to the centre of the village, where children stood around the soldiers chanting and singing. The soldiers then forcefully entered a house from which they attempted to block access to those protesting, and seized one young female demonstrator who they accused of stone-throwing. She was, however, quickly released when they realised she holds both Palestinian and American citizenship.
The soldiers later chased a teenager (presumably suspected of stone throwing) through the village and attempted to arrest him. Many of the Palestinians and several internationals successfully de-arrested him, but he had already been badly beaten by this point and was taken to hospital after falling unconscious.
Several attempted arrests were made, and one international was violently seized by the soldiers shortly after this, and was detained at Halamish settlement’s military base. The international was kept in a dark room and had his hands tied behind his back at all times, even when bread was thrown on the floor for him to eat. He was given no explanation for this treatment and was released without charge after 6 hours.
The protest continued, whereupon soldiers began firing tear gas projectiles both in an arc (the legal method) and directly at individuals (which is illegal according to both international and Israeli law). Several of the children suffered cuts and heavy bruising as a consequence, and many adults and children suffered extreme tear gas inhalation, although none was severely wounded.
The demonstration stopped for almost an hour when the jeeps and soldiers left the village, but continued when they entered once again and continued to fire both directly at protestors and into the villagers’ gardens, at which point large amounts of tear gas entered numerous houses, including the houses of those who were not taking part in the protest.
The demonstration ended at approximately 6:30pm, when the soldiers finally left the village after continuing in this vein for several hours. By this point there were over 150 participants.
Since January 2010, peaceful protestors have spent their Fridays attempting to reach the spring, which was confiscated along with almost half of the village’s arable land. Despite confirmation from the District Coordination Office that the spring is on Palestinian land, the villagers continue to be prevented from accessing the area.
An Israeli marksman at the Bil`in demo. Photo credit Hamde Abu Rahma
Ni`lin
On Friday over 100 Palestinians attended noon prayer in the olive groves outside the village of Ni’lin. After the prayer finished at around 12:15, over 70 Palestinians accompanied by ten international and Israeli activists and two journalists marched toward the wall that cuts through the village’s land. As well as being against the illegal apartheid wall, this demonstration was in part a protest against the American pastor Terry Jones who claimed he was going to burn the Qur’an on 11 September. Demonstrators held their copies of the Qur’an towards the sky as they marched and chanted.
Upon reaching the apartheid wall, stones were symbolically thrown at the huge concrete structure by the youths for twenty minutes, before tear gas and sounds bombs were then fired over the wall by the soldiers for about minutes five minutes before they opened the gate and began chasing demonstrators back towards the village, firing tear gas all the way. One man received medical assistance for an injury sustained running to avoid being hit by tear gas canisters.
For some hours most demonstrators and soldiers stood on opposite sides of a small valley. Some youths attempted to sneak back towards the wall while tear gas and sound bombs were fired by the soldiers. Five gunshots were heard and blank cartridges were found which indicate rubber-coated steel bullet use, though no-one was hit. Another group of soldiers came towards the olive groves where the demonstration started, and fired dangerous low-flying tear gas close to the heads of Palestinians and international activists, forbidden even by the army’s own regulations.
Young children symbolically threw stones in the direction of the soldiers who responded with low-flying tear gas until they retreated. The demonstrators ended the demonstration at 3:15 PM. No arrests were made and injuries consisted of two sprained ankles endured running from the potentially lethal tear gas canisters.
Beit Ummar
Around 60 Palestinians were supported by about 15 international activists in the village of Beit Ummar on Saturday in a demonstration against the illegal annexation of land by the neighboring settlement of Karmei Sur. The demonstration took place on the road leading to the fence that surrounds the settlement. Protesters made their way towards the gate in the fence, but were stopped by a group of soldiers who blocked the road, firing and throwing both tear gas and sound grenades.
Three Palestinian demonstrators were detained, including one journalist, along with two internationals. At one point during the protest, soldiers brought the detained journalist back out through the gate and offered to let him go if all of the media would leave the village with him. All parties refused and he was taken back into custody.
One international activist was hit in the back with a tear gas canister as soldiers fired them directly at the group of civilians. Additionally, a Palestinian boy was injured in the same way when soldiers drove an army vehicle through one of the gates onto the village’s farmland, and proceeded to chase the demonstrators through the fields, continuing to fire tear gas at body level. One other international temporarily lost hearing in one ear when a soldier shot a sound grenade directly next to her head, and many suffered from inhaling large quantities of gas.
The demonstration continued for around an hour and a half before protesters were chased back into the village amidst a barrage of tear gas.
The detained international is still being held by Israeli forces 48 hours after his arrest.
Hebron
On Saturday, after stopping for several weeks due to the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, the regular Saturday protests against the illegal settlements in Hebron and the closure of Shuhada Street started again.
Palestinians and internationals gathered in Al Zajed in the centre of Hebron at 3 p.m. and made their way to the gate that closes off Shuhada Street by the Beit Romano settlement at the entrance to the old city, but from the very beginning soldiers and police blocked their passage.
The demonstrators chanted against the occupation and the settlements, and many were carrying posters illustrating the crippling difficulties the Hebron residents suffer under Israeli occupation. This week they were also commemorating the anniversary of the massacres in Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon in 1982. After nearly an hour the protestors turned their backs on the soldiers and slowly made their way back through the old city, coming to another entrance to Shuhada Street, where once again the Israeli army had closed the way. After twenty minutes of singing and chanting the protestors moved back to the starting point of the demonstration.
Palestinian youth dodge tear gas in Bil`in. Photo credit: Hamde Abu Rahma
The weekend of 10-11th September saw the start of Eid ul-Fitr, which ends the fasting observed during the holy month of Ramadan in the Muslim religion. Three villages around Ramallah – Bil’in, Ni’lin and An Nabi Saleh – held protests on Friday 10th September despite it being the first day of Eid.
Bil’in
This week’s demonstration against the illegal separation wall and its route through the village was yet again met with violence from the Israeli military. Despite it being the first day of Eid ul-Fitr, approximately 30 Palestinians, and 20 to 25 Israeli and International activists took part in the protest.
The demonstrations have been taking place on a weekly basis since March 2005, and consistently creative themes have drawn international attention to the village and to Palestinian non-violent resistance. This week’s theme drew attention to the multitude of unfounded arrests of Palestinians involved in the popular struggle against Israeli occupation. It focused on Abdallah Abu Rahmah’s case but called for the release of all those incarcerated as a consequence of their involvement in the resistance movement.
Regardless of the non-violent nature of the demonstration, soldiers fired tear gas directly at protestors for several hours. Many suffered from severe tear gas inhalation but none received serious injuries and no arrests were made.
The wall began being built through the village in 2005, was completed in 2007, and remains despite the 2004 International Court of Justice declaration of its illegality and even Israel’s High Court ruling in favour of the Bil’in villagers in 2007. The protests contest the building of the separation wall and its theft of 230 hectares of Bil’in’s land.
Ni’lin
About 12 Palestinans were supported by around ten Israeli and international activists on Friday in a march towards the Apartheid wall that cuts the village off from much of its land.
Flying the flag in Bil'in - Photo: Iyas Abu Rahma
Despite the fact that the beginning of the Eid ul-Fitr holiday had meant fewer protestors joined in the march, spirits were high and the determination of the people of Ni’lin was as strong as always. The group was met by a handful of soldiers on the opposite side of the wall, where one of the Palestinian leaders of the demonstration was able to confront the soldiers, speaking to them in Hebrew. The demonstrators were told that the area was a closed military zone, but no documentation was produced to prove this statement. After about 20 minutes and a few more threats of dispersal, the demonstrators chose to turn back to the village. The soldiers could be seen preparing tear gas to use on the group, but none was fired.
The people of Ni’lin village continued their struggle this Friday – despite the advanced stage of Ramadan – and have been doing through weekly protests since May 2008. In attempting to crush and deter peaceful protests against the wall Israeli soldiers have killed 20 Palestinians since Februrary 2004 including 5 from Ni’lin village, where an American solidarity activist was also critically injured. The illegal settlement of Mod’in Illit is one of the biggest in the area and is in the process of expanding and constantly attempting to annex Palestinian land to this end.
An Nabi Saleh
This week, the area had not been declared a closed military zone, and jeeps were not blocking the main entrance road to the village. The demo started around 20 minutes late, with a group of just under 20 Palestinians (as always including many children) and around 15 internationals.
Once the group arrived, the soldiers moved from their position in front of the gate at the edge of the village to standing behind it. They tried a few times to get the leader of the protest to leave, but he stood his ground, as children banged rocks on the metal gate and adults clapped along to the rhythm. After a few minutes at the gate, it was announced that it was traditional for the village to organise trips to those families who had members in prison, so the crowd turned round and headed back into the village.
Children waving Palestine flags in An Nabi Saleh
Today and every Friday since January 2010, un-armed demonstrators leave the village center in an attempt to reach a spring which borders land confiscated by Israeli settlers. The District Coordination Office has confirmed the spring is on Palestinian land, but nearly a kilometer before reaching the spring, the demonstration is routinely met with dozens of soldiers armed with M16 assault rifles, tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and percussion grenades.
The demonstrations protest Israel’s apartheid, which has manifested itself in An Nabi Saleh through land confiscation. The illegal Halamish (Neve Zuf) settlement, located opposite An Nabi Saleh, has illegally seized nearly of half of the village’s valuable agricultural land.
Bilin protestors pose as prisoners in front of Israeli soldiers following the release of photos of abuse of Palestinian detainees.
Bil’in
The weekly demonstration in the village of Bil’in this week saw protesters draw attention to the recently published photos of the abuse of Palestinian prisoners by the Israeli army. A handful of the protesters blindfolded and handcuffed themselves to draw attention to the mistreatment of prisoners and marched at the front of the demonstration. Two arrests were made, including one of these protesters, a Norwegian student, who was grabbed while still blindfolded and dragged away.
Israeli soldiers detaining a Norwegian protestor who had blindfolded herself like a Palestinian prisoner
As well as local Palestinian residents, around 30 internationals and about 10 Israelis took part in the demonstration against the Apartheid Wall and the theft of land belonging to the residents of Bil’in. Despite it being the second Friday of Ramadan and a swelteringly hot day, the protesters chanted slogans against the occupation and called for the release of the village’s prisoners, as well as the prosecution of Israeli soldiers found to have been abusing prisoners in their custody. Many demonstrators carried reproductions of a photograph of Israeli soldiers posing by the body of a dead Palestinian man – an image they termed a “souvenir shot” which bears comparison to pictures of Iraq’s Abu Ghraib which shocked the world in 2004.
The protesters marched up to the soldiers and the blindfolded and cuffed ‘prisoners’ sat at their feet (to offer the soldiers an opportunity for photos they could later upload to facebook.) Without warning tear gas started to be fired and – while still blindfolded – a Norwegian citizen was forcefully arrested. She was later released but told to return to meet Israeli authorities on Sunday, when they admitted she could not have been aware of the fact that the area had been declare a ‘closed military zone’ but then accused her of being a member of the International Solidarity Movement and imposed conditions banning her from going to Bil’in for 15 days. An Israeli activist was also arrested but released later the same day.
The route of Israel’s separation wall in Bil’in cuts off villagers from large areas of their land. It was declared illegal in September 2007 by Israel’s own High Court, but despite this – and the International Court of Justice’s 2004 ruling that the wall in its entirety is illegal and should be dismantled – it remains in place. Bil’in have been holding weekly protests since March 2005 and the creativity and perseverance of the nonviolent struggle there has drawn international attention to the Palestinian resistance to occupation as a while.
Ni’lin
On Friday about 25 Palestinians were joined by a small group of internationals for the village of Ni’lin’s weekly protest against the Apartheid Wall. Five international and two Israeli protesters joined the demonstration which started after Friday prayers. The group marched to the wall which cuts off Palestinians from their farmland, annexing it to Israeli settlements like Modi’in Illit.
Perhaps due to the intense heat and it being the second Friday of Ramadan, the demonstration this week was fairly quiet. Despite huge aggression for the Israeli army in the past, they refrained for once from even using teargas or sound bombs against the unarmed protest so the situation remained peaceful. After the demonstration the internationals present were given a tour of the village and its small museum commemorating important events in the history of Ni’lin’s struggle.
An Nabi Saleh
Around 50 people took part in this Friday’s demonstration against the illegally built Halamish settlement encroaching on land belonging to the village of An Nabi Saleh, this Friday, and this number included approximately 15 Israeli and international human rights activists.
As usual the protest began after noon prayer, and continued until around four o’clock, despite the fact that the majority of the participants are currently fasting for Ramadan. The march down to the entrance of the village was once again met with a blockade, and after several attempts to gain access to the village’s main road, the protesters retreated back up the street to the centre of the village.
Soldiers later began throwing sound bombs and shooting tear gas projectiles directly at Palestinian children. The children stones at the soldiers’ armored jeeps. One of the children was hit in the leg by a ricocheting tear gas canister, but was not seriously injured.
Subsequent attempts to reason with the soldiers resulted in two international activists being detained in Halamish military base for several hours. Other attempted arrests were scuppered by fellow activists. A lot of teargas was fired at the houses nearby and a lot of people including children suffered from teargas inhalation, but the protesters declared the lack of serious injuries and spirited protest a success.
Al Ma’sara
Palestinians from Al Ma’sara and nine surrounding villages south of Bethlehem were joined on Friday by internationals and Israelis in solidarity with their cause. The weekly demonstration against the Apartheid Wall and illegal settlements reacted to the pictures of Palestinian prisoners humiliated by Israeli soldiers in ‘souvenir photos’ posted on Facebook – and so several protesters wore handcuffs and blindfolds while others carried enlarged photographs of the abuse.
Al Ma'sara protestors hold copies of photos showing captured, injured or killed Palestinians - posted on facebook by Israeli soldiers
Despite some suggestions that they are a one-off, the demonstrates hoped to make the point that in fact these images and such incidents are common and form part of the systematic abuse that goes hand in hand with Israel’s ongoing illegal occupation of Palestine. In chants and speeches, protesters called for an end to the continuing violations of the Geneva Accords and international law.
The protesters proceeded to the road that Israel illegally constructed on Palestinian land to connect the Jewish-only settlements of Gush Etzion but they were intercepted by the Israeli army. Sound bombs were thrown at the unarmed and nonviolent protesters who were denied the right to access their land once again. However, organizers stated that despite the soldiers’ violence they would continue their peaceful fight for freedom and justice which is their right.
Hebron
At 4:00 PM on Friday August 21, people began gathering in the Old City centre of Hebron. The resistance organized a peaceful march through the Old City markets. The purpose of the march was to thank the shopkeepers for their support of the demonstrations that take place on a weekly basis, calling for an end to the military occupation and settler violence – and to reiterate this call.
During the last few weeks, soldiers have been attacking peaceful protesters. Many Palestinians, internationals and Israelis have been assaulted and arrested by the Israeli army. Some of the Palestinians were also beaten in prison.
The soldiers have also threatened leaders of the movement with lengthy prison terms, up to 10 years. In addition to this, they have sent agents to threaten and intimidate shopkeepers. Three shops were forcefully closed down last week.
A young boy watches Israeli soldiers patrolling in occupied Hebron
In light of all of this repression, the leaders have decided to temporarily suspend the protests. The crowd met and marched through the Old City. Shopkeepers were given certificates thanking them for supporting the struggle.
There were soldiers watching the procession from the roofs, and six of them followed the people from behind. They did not try to interfere and in the end went back to their base. The group Youth Against Settlements will be organizing more events in the future to continue the struggle for justice in Hebron.
Iraq Burin
Yesterday in the small village of Iraq Burin, nonviolent demonstrators were attacked by the Israeli army and Border Police, who fired tear gas and sound bombs at the protestors. Since a flying checkpoint is regularly used to close the road into the village along the main road from Nablus, preventing access to internationals and media, and the young men of the village suspected of taking part in the demonstrations, a long hike across a valley leads up to the hill-top village. Demonstrations happen every Saturday, but tensions have been high since the murder of two young boys by an Israeli military sniper took place inside the village in March this year.
A large group of Palestinians gathered on the outskirts of the village and three internationals who had skirted the checkpoint were also present. The demonstration began with around thirty or more Palestinians attempting to scale the steep hill opposite the village, where Israeli soldiers were already in position. The soldiers responded to the demonstration by – illegally – firing teargas canisters directly at Palestinians and internationals, firing downhill at the upper body. At least two Palestinians received injuries from the canisters on the neck and shoulders, and one international was hit in the back although none were seriously hurt because each ricocheted off a rock first. Tear gas and sound bombs were also shot in the direction of the village and those not even taking part in the demonstration but watching from the opposite hill. The demonstration continued for approximately an hour, when Israeli Border police arrived and the demonstrators were forced to retreat. Thankfully, no live fire has been used since the murders but the isolation of the protest by the military creates a dangerous situation, as it is difficult for media and international volunteers to be present, increasing the chances that the Israeli army will use weapons with reckless disregard for human life.
