Tag: Bassem Abu Rahmah

Closing statement of the fourth Bil’in International Conference on Non-Violent Resistance

The Fourth Bil’in International Conference on Non-Violent Resistance, in honor of Basem Abu Rahme

April 22-24, 2009

As we conclude our conference today, we remember our friend and fellow in struggle, Bassem Abu Rahma, who was killed by the Israeli army last Friday during the weekly peaceful demonstration. Our hearts and prayers go out to his family and we wish them peace in these hard times. Our thoughts and prayers are also with Tristan Anderson and his family. Tristan, an American solidarity activist, was shot and seriously injured by the Israeli army last month while he was visiting Ni’lin village.

The Fourth Bil’in Conference for Non-Violent Resistance is held this year at a critical stage of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. As Israeli violence and oppression against the Palestinian people to force it into submission has intensified, and an extremist Israeli government ascended to power, the Palestinian leadership is unacceptably divided and weakened.

Palestinians in Gaza are still suffering from the impact of the barbaric Israeli attack on them in Operation Cast Lead and the inhumane blockade imposed on the Strip for years now. In the West Bank, the Israeli authorities have intensified its ethnic cleansing efforts especially in the Jerusalem area, through house evictions, systematic killings, detentions, settlement building and the construction of the Apartheid Wall. Through an elaborate control system of more than 600 military checkpoints and hundred of military orders of house demolitions, land confiscation and blockade, Israel is actively creating facts on the ground that shall render any peaceful settlement of the conflict impossible.

Facing this painful reality, the Palestinian people must continue and develop their popular resistance to protect their basic rights to life and freedom and realize their aspirations of a peaceful future, like the rest of the world.

The participants of the Fourth Bil’in Conference for Non-Violent Resistance are committed to the rights of the Palestinian people through: supporting and promoting popular forms of resistance throughout the occupied Palestinian territories, encouraging the Palestinian leadership and civil society to assume a more active role in the popular resistance movement, promoting the culture of resistance and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, unifying the Palestinian people geographically and politically through involving Palestinians the Gaza Strip in the popular movement and helping overcome the blockade and isolation, and raising the awareness of the daily realities of Palestinian suffering under the occupation through field visits.

The participants of the Conference emphasize the importance of the popular resistance as an effective strategy to resist oppression. Recently, several popular resistance campaigns throughout the occupied Palestinian territories have been launched or expanded. The participants discussed the developments in Ni’lin, Al-Ma’sara, the Jordan Valley, Southern Hebron and Bil’in as models of effective popular resistance. This is complemented by important developments in the BDS movement on the international level. In France and Canada, law suits have been filed against those who benefit from the occupation and settlements. The New York-based boycott campaign against settlement-builder, Lev Leviev, has spread to the UK and Norway.

Based on the discussion in the Conference and the workshops, the participants have decided to adopt the following unifying strategies as a basis for the work on the popular resistance movement:

· Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Against Israel (BDS)

1. Holding organizing conferences within the different regions active in BDS to coordinate BDS campaigns and initiatives.

2. Based on the resolution adopted by the World Social Forum this past January, it was decided to hold the Global BDS Day of Action on March 30 of each year, which also coincides with Land Day.

· Promoting legal accountability for war crimes

1. Intensifying the popular campaigns locally and internationally to prosecute Israeli war criminals.

2. Coordinating between the Palestinian civil society and human rights organizations in Europe and the US involved in prosecuting Israeli war criminals.

· Spreading and supporting the popular nonviolent resistance

1. Creating a coordination committee including representatives of the popular committees who attended the conference in order to facilitate the implementation of the conclusions of the Bilín Annual conference on Popular Resistance and to support the popular resistance.

2. Increasing the coordination between the Popular Committees.

3. Providing accessible data on the activities of the Palestinian popular resistance movement.

4. Reaching out to media, focusing on success stories of the popular resistance movement.

5. Sharing experiences and learning from other popular movements around the world.

6. Differentiating between the role of the popular movement and that of the Palestinian Authority political parties and factions.

· Building an international movement in solidarity with Palestine

1. Improving coordination of international civil society groups working in solidarity with the popular nonviolent resistance, through transversal initiatives like the working groups of the World Social Forum for Palestine.

2. Strengthening communication, advocacy and lobbying capacity of the solidarity movements focusing on respect of international law and human rights in Palestine, and putting more pressure on foreign governments and politicians.

3. Joining the BDS movement, promoting fare trade relationships with Palestine, rejecting the upgrading of cooperation agreements between the European Union and Israel and asking for suspension of such agreements till Israel violates international law.

4. Pressing governments and parliaments worldwide to take a position against the siege on Gaza, holding Israeli war criminals accountable in international tribunals (including a Russell Tribunal for Palestine) and highlighting the voice of Israeli anti-occupation groups who denounce those crimes.

5. Empowering other international initiatives to: contrast arms trade with Israel, protect Palestinian prisoners, promote twinning projects with Palestinian towns/universities/refugee camps, send civilian peace teams to the Occupied Territories and organize field visits of politicians, lawyers, journalists.

The participants also demand the following:

· On the Palestinian level

1. Achieving national unity, which is a prerequisite for national liberation.

2. Serious efforts by the Palestinian president and government to implement the ruling of the International Court of Justice of July 9, 2004 and the subsequent UN General Assembly resolution.

3. Supporting the popular resistance movement by the Palestinian leadership and officials and taking a firm stance against the Judiaization and ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem as well as the expansion of the settlements and the construction of the Apartheid Wall.

4. The endorsement by the Palestinian national factions of the popular resistance, namely BDS movement.

· On the Israeli level

1. Strengthening the relations with Israel peace groups that join the Palestinian popular resistance against the occupation and oppression.

2. Rejecting any and all forms of normalization and isolating those involved in it.

· On the International level

1. Institutionalizing the relations between the Palestinian popular resistance movement and international solidarity activists and inviting more activists to join and support the movement.

2. Calling on all the international organizations, unions, peace activists and civil society institutions to present the Palestinian narrative as they witnessed first hand and combat the Israeli propaganda that dehumanizes the Palestinian people.

Finally, the participants of the Conference decided that Bil’in International Conference on Non-Violent Resistance will be held in April of each year.

Heed voices calling for justice for Palestinians

Huwaida Arraf | The Seattle Times

24 April 2009

We Palestinians are often asked where the Palestinian Gandhi is and urged to adopt nonviolent methods in our struggle for freedom from Israeli military rule. On April 18, an Israeli soldier killed my good friend Bassem Abu Rahme at a nonviolent demonstration against Israeli confiscation of Palestinian land. Bassem was one of many Palestinian Gandhis.

One month prior, at another demonstration against land confiscation, Israeli soldiers fired a tear-gas canister at the head of nonviolent American peace activist Tristan Anderson from California. Tristan underwent surgery to remove part of his frontal lobe and is still lying unconscious in an Israeli hospital. In 2003, the Israeli military plowed down American peace activist Rachel Corrie with a Caterpillar bulldozer as she tried to protect a civilian home from demolition in Gaza. Shortly thereafter, an Israeli sniper shot British peace activist Tom Hurndall as he rescued Palestinian children from Israeli gunfire. He lay in a coma for nine months before he died.

Despite the killing of these unarmed civilians and documented evidence of systematic human-rights abuses, the U.S. continues to supply Israel with approximately $3 billion in military aid annually, allowing Israel to continue abusing Palestinians and preventing any meaningful resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The Israeli government orders the confiscation of Palestinian land for one of two main purposes: to build or expand illegal colonies or to construct the Wall that the International Court of Justice ruled illegal in 2004. In the case of Bassem’s village of Bil’in, even the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the Israeli government to change the route of the Wall, though Israel has yet to comply. Consequently, Palestinian farmers cannot reach their crops and they are devastated economically. Israel’s policy is intended to force Palestinians to give up and leave in order to survive.

When village residents gather weekly to protest, they use various creative methods of nonviolent resistance, including carrying mirrors up to the soldiers to show them “the face of occupation” or dressing as various politicians and wearing blindfolds to symbolize the world’s blind eye to their struggle. The Israeli military meets them and their Israeli and international supporters with tear gas, grenades, and bullets.

Eyewitness accounts and a YouTube video of Bassem’s killing attest to the fact that Bassem was not engaged in any kind of violent action when a soldier decided to fire a high-velocity tear gas canister — designed to be shot in the air or from a great distance — directly at his chest, fatally wounding him. In fact, just before he was shot, Bassem is heard calling to soldiers to stop shooting as a woman had been injured. Far too often, Israel tries to silence dissent by using disproportionate and sometimes lethal force against demonstrators.

In February, I led a delegation of American lawyers to the Gaza Strip to investigate Israel’s conduct in its 22-day military offensive during which more than 1,400 Palestinians were killed and more than 5,300 injured, most of them civilians — a rate of more than 60 killed per day. We found disturbing evidence of willful killing of civilians, wanton damage to civilian property and deliberate blocking of humanitarian aid. These are violations of international law that may constitute war crimes. During the offensive, Israel attempted to avert international outrage by refusing to let foreign journalists enter Gaza.

The United Nations has appointed a team of experts, led by a renowned human-rights advocate — Richard Goldstone, a Jewish, South African judge — to investigate the conduct of both Israel and Hamas. Hamas has agreed to cooperate, but Israel has indicated an intention to block the investigation. Israel tries to silence the human-rights community by preventing access to the occupied territory and refusing to cooperate with U.N.-mandated inquiries.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman claimed recently, “Believe me, America accepts all our decisions.” I do not believe, however, that the United States condones the killing of my friend Bassem. But if President Obama is serious about true peace in the Middle East, he must demonstrate that Lieberman is wrong, break the American silence, and heed the voices of those calling for justice.

Huwaida Arraf, J.D., specializes in international human rights and humanitarian law. In 2001 she co-founded the International Solidarity Movement.

B’Tselem to Judge Advocate General – order security forces to stop firing tear-gas grenades directly at people

B’Tselem

22 April 2009

Last Friday, 17 April, during a demonstration in Bi’lin, in the Ramallah District, a soldier fired a tear-gas grenade from an increased distance at Bassem Ibrahim Abu Rahma, 30. The grenade left a hole in his chest, causing massive internal bleeding, which led to his death. Two video clips filmed at the site prove that Abu Rahma was standing on the eastern side of the fence, about thirty meters from the soldiers, when he was hit. The video clips also show that during the incident, he did not throw stones, did not damage the fence, and did not endanger soldiers in any way whatsoever.

http://blip.tv/play/gukm+6pshKtR
Footage of the shooting of Bassem Abu Rahmah

B’Tselem wrote to the Judge Advocate General (JAG), Brig. Gen. Avichai Mandelblit on 21 April 2009, demanding that he immediately order a Military Police investigation into the circumstances of Abu Rahma’s death, and that he make it clear to security forces that it is absolutely forbidden to fire tear-gas grenades directly at people. In a previous letter that B’Tselem sent to the JAG on this matter last month, following the severe injuries sustained by the American, Tristan Anderson, when he was struck in the forhead by a tear-gas grenade fired from an increased distance, no response has been received.

http://blip.tv/play/gukm97tThKtR
Video footage documenting the shooting of tear-gas canisters directly at people

In its letter of last week, B’Tselem attached video clips of demonstrations in Ni’lin, Bi’lin, and Jayyus filmed in recent months. The clips document repeated firing of tear-gas grenades directly at demonstrators, proving that, contrary to the army’s contentions, security forces in the West Bank have commonly practiced this unlawful act.

B’Tselem also noted that, at the location of the demonstrations in Bi’lin and Ni’lin, senior army and border patrol officers are always present. Whether they turn a blind eye to the extensive breach of the Open-Fire Regulations or give express orders to security forces to violate regulations, they bear responsibility for the lethal consequences of this forbidden practice. Furthermore, for some time, and at least since the extensive media coverage of the serious head injury to Tristan Anderson, on 13 March 2009, mentioned above, senior officers of the army and border police have known about direct firing of grenades at demonstrators. Since they were in a position to end this practice, they too bear responsibility for the lethal shooting.

Israel kills at will and in total impunity while the world demands nonviolence from Palestinians

Frank Barat | Palestine Solidarity Campaign UK

The death of Bassem Abu Rahme

On April the 17th, like any Fridays afternoon for the last 4 years, the small village of Bil’in, north of Ramallah, was preparing for the usual demonstration against Israel’s annexation wall (some people call it apartheid wall or separation wall. The Israeli government refers to it as the security fence).

The village of Bil’in has, since the mid eighties, lost more than 60% of its land for the purpose of Israeli growing settlements and the construction of the wall. The inhabitants of the village used to live mainly from agriculture and olive tree plantations, but more and more the people of Bil’in have to rely on their women to survive. Embroidery has become one of the main resource of the place, located a few kilometres away from Tel Aviv. On a nice day, you can see the inaccessible – for the Palestinians – beach from the roof tops of Bil’in.

In January 2005 a village organizing committee, led by Mohamed Khatib, Iyad Burnat and Abdullah Abu Rahme, was created and one month later non-violent demonstrations started, first every day, then once a week, on Yum Al Juma’a (Friday, the Muslim day of prayer).

The village won a huge battle in August 2008 when the Israeli High Court of Justice ruled that the new route of the barrier in Bil’in was in violation of the Court ruling released on September 2007. That ruling stated that the Wall’s path was prejudicial to Bil’in and must be altered. The State was ordered to present a new route within 45 days, which upheld the principles of the ruling.

On Friday the 17th of April 2009, the wall still had not moved one inch and while the inhabitants of the village were praying at the village mosque, internationals and a strong contingent of Israeli supporters – including people from the Alternative Information Centre and Anarchists Against the Wall – were looking for some shade to hide from the baking sun and chatting about the day’s event. As soon as prayer was over with, the demonstration started to move forward in direction of the wall, a few kilometres away.

Bassem Abu Rahme (aka Phil) was right at the front of the march. He always was. I had met Bassem a few times while visiting Bil’in. He was a strong looking man, singing the loudest, joking all the time, jumping around and leading the way, accompanied by the rest of the village committee and the Israeli contingent.

As it usually happens, as soon as the march reached the corner where the Israeli soldiers can be seen, the tear gas started. A few brave ones, always continue anyway and reach the beginning of the wall. Bassem, as usual, was one of those. The Israelis present at the front of the demonstration started talking with the nearby soldiers in Hebrew and Bassem screamed, “We are in a non violent protest, there are kids and internationals…”

He was shot in the chest and never managed to finished his sentence. He fell to the ground, moved a little, fell again, and died.

Bassem was shot by a new kind of tear gas canister, called the “rocket.” The soldier who shot him was a mere 40 meters away. This is the same type of tear gas that critically injured US citizen Tristan Anderson a few weeks ago. Those tear gas canisters are as fast and lethal as live ammunition and very hard to get away from. Normally, tear gas canisters fly in the air for a long time, then fall and bounce a few times. These new canisters fly like an over-sized bullet and go straight, not up and down.

Once more, Israel is using the West Bank as its testing ground and Palestinians as guinea pigs for new kinds of ammunition.

The soldier who fired knew what he was doing and who he was targeting. The shame is that he probably knew Bassem. Bassem was always at the front, and had been for several years. The soldiers often serve more than once in Bil’in and start to know the people facing them at the demonstrations.

On April the 17th , Bil’in and Palestine lost one of their heroes.

What is going to happen next? Israel claims it will investigate the incident. Only 6% of offending soldiers from similar investigations have been prosecuted and those have usually been let off with a few weeks suspension. The Israeli government claims, as it has in the past, that the demonstration was violent and that soldiers were forced to respond. This worn-out propaganda is discredited by the video of the demonstration, which clearly shows otherwise.

We may even hear in a few days that it was actually the Palestinians who fired the tear gas and killed their beloved friend.

The Palestinian Authority, instead of issuing a strong statement against this act, stopping, once and for all, the negotiations with the Israeli government, and joining the demonstrators every Friday to be hand in hand with its people, said next to nothing and is looking forward to the coming up White House meeting between Mahmoud Abbas and President Obama.

The media has hardly reported any of Bil’in’s story. In their narrative of the conflict, the Palestinians do not count. This is even more shocking when a video of the event is available and shows so clearly the imbalance of violence directed at Palestinians.

The international community will not mention this “incident” and continue issuing calls for the Palestinians to renounce violence and resist peacefully. Since the start of the second intifada, 87% of the dead have been Palestinians. But the international community will say little about Israel’s violations of international law and oppression of the Palestinians.

It is therefore left to us, the citizens of this world, to act, to join solidarity groups, to write articles, to make films and talk – constantly – about the plight of the Palestinian people. Palestine has to become the number one issue.

It must. For Bassem, his family, Bil’in, and Palestine.

Frank Barat is in the organizing committee of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine and a member of Palestine Solidarity Campaign UK.

The village of Bil’in is organizing its fourth conference on nonviolent resistance from April 22 – 24.

His name was Basem

Mohammad Khatib | Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements

His name was Basem, which means smile, and that is how he greeted everyone.  But we all called him ‘Pheel’, which means elephant because he had the body the size of an elephant. But Basem had the heart of a child.

He loved everyone, and because of his sweetness and ability to make us laugh, everyone loved him. Basem was everyone’s friend: the children talk about how he would play with them, scare them and then make them laugh. He would tend the garden in the playground and bring toys and books to the kindergarten. The old ladies in the village talk about how he used to visit, to ask after them and see if they needed anything. In the village, he seemed to be everywhere at once. He would pop in to say hello, take one puff of the nargila, and be off to his next spot. The morning he was killed he went to the house of Hamis, whose skull had been broken at a previous demonstration three months ago by a tear gas canister projectile – the same weapon that would kill Basem.

Basem woke Hamis and gave him his medicine, then off he went to visit another friend in the village who is ill with cancer. Then a little girl from the village wanted a pineapple but couldn’t find any in the local stores. So Basem went to Ramallah to get a pineapple and was back before noon for the Friday prayers and the weekly demonstration against the theft of our land by the apartheid wall.  Pheel never missed a demonstration; he participated in all the activities and creative actions in Bilin. He would always talk to the soldiers as human beings. Before he was hit he was calling for the soldiers to stop shooting because there were goats near the fence and he was worried for them. Then a woman in front of him was hit. He yelled to the commander to stop shooting because someone was wounded. He expected the soldiers to understand and stop shooting. Instead, they shot him too.

People came to his funeral from all the surrounding villages to show Basem that they loved him as much as he had loved them. But those of us from Bil’in kept looking around for him, expecting him to be walking with us.

Pheel, you were everyone’s friend. We always knew we loved you, but didn’t realize how much we would miss you until we lost you. As Bil’in has become the symbol of Palestine’s popular resistance, you are the symbol of Bil’in. Sweet Pheel, Rest in Peace, we will continue in your footsteps.