Tag: Bethlehem - Page 28 - International Solidarity Movement

PNN: Gathering Steam in South Bethlehem

Nonviolent Activism Gathers Steam in Southern Bethlehem
by Sami Awad, April 27th, 2007

To see video, click HERE

The southern villages of Bethlehem have been organizing weekly nonviolent resistance activities to the building of the Apartheid Wall that will ultimately separate the farmers from these villages from 70% of their agricultural land.

The activity this week witnessed an evolution of size and strategy. For the first time, over 200 participants (Palestinians, Israelis, and International) joined in the direct action; for the first time, the committee responsible for organizing the action included new members from villages in the South of Bethlehem and activists from the northern villages of Hebron (Beit Umar), and for the first time their was a clear increase in the number of International and Israeli activist.

On the strategic level, the success of the previous actions empowered the organizers to target a location that was perceived as impossible to reach, the Bethlehem-Hebron Road (also know as Road 60). Once the wall is completed in this area, Palestinians will not be able to travel on this historic route which will only be used for the cars of Jewish settlers. Palestinians will only be allowed to use back and side roads increasing the duration of any trip by over 200% at minimum (i.e. to go from Bethlehem to Hebron will take 1 hour instead of the usual 15 minutes).

The goal of this nonviolent action was to go and protest on this road and to express our opposition not only to the building of the wall but also to the continued existence and expansion of settlements that are the cause for building the wall, (the wall guarantees the land for future settlement building and expansion).

As soon as we began the procession, tens of armed Israeli troops came and attempted to stop the protest from moving to the land. The demonstrators broke into the army wall that was created and we continued our procession to the land near the main road where the Israeli soldiers used violence again to try to suppress the action (several were injured including journalists). Several people gave talks denouncing the building of the wall and called for a real and justice peace between Palestinians and Israelis. Friday prayer was then conducted on the land. On the return back to the location where we began the action, the Israeli soldiers again pushed and yelled. It was truly wonderful to see the commitment to nonviolence by the more than 200 participants.

The level of frustration by the Israeli army to the success of the nonviolent activity was not witnessed on the site, but the retaliation took place on our way to our homes. Israeli army check points were placed on the entry ways to all locations where the participants came from and cars that were at the sight of the action were stopped, the people were insulted, some were forcefully removed from the cars and then cars and individuals were searched for almost an hour. Of course the Israeli army knew there was nothing to search for, but that seemed to be the only response they can think of to “punish” the participants for being successful in this action.

My hope is that nonviolent action does not only give us an opportunity to show the world our rejection of injustice, but to also give us an opportunity to open the eyes of those who are doing the injustice to truly think about what they are doing. Yes, at first it may be frustrating to them as we challenge their believe system and ideologies, but then their humanity will overcome their prejudice.

IMEMC: Against the Wall near Bethlehem

Peaceful demonstration against the illegal wall and settlements near Bethlehem
Polly Bangoriad, 27 April 2007

On Friday midday Palestinian, Israeli and international peace activists held a non-violent demonstration near the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem, protesting against illegal Israeli settlement expansion and the Illegal Wall.

Israeli army watch over non-violent demonstration – Photo by Polly Bangoriad

Over one hundred non-violent activists gathered at the junction on route 60, near the illegal Israeli settlement of Effrat, and stood near the busy road holding large banners bearing anti-occupation slogans such as ‘Stop Bethlehem Bleeding’. A number of villages in the Bethlehem district are under dire threat from the construction of the illegal Israeli separation Wall and the expansion of settlements.

Around a dozen Israeli army and police force jeeps surrounded the area. Armed troops attempted to herd the demonstrators away from the roadside and attempted to obscure the banners by forming a human wall. However, some demonstrators climbed atop a concrete block around two meters high and waved Palestinian flags and bunches of red, white, green and black balloons.

Local Palestinians gave speeches in English and Arabic praising the demonstration and calling for non-violent resistance. After Friday prayers had been held at the roadside under the gaze of the armed troops, the demonstrators marched about 100 yards along the road towards the Palestinian village of Um Salamoneh and the illegal settlement of Efrat, chanting anti-occupation slogans. The non-violent demonstration came to an end peacefully, amongst dozens of armed Israeli troops.

As with all Israeli settlements in the West Bank, Effrat was built illegally on private or publicly owned Palestinian land. The establishment and expansion of illegal Israeli settlements and the Wall on what is largely Palestinian agricultural land causes massive damage not only to the Palestinian economy, but restricts movement and annexes thousands of people into ghettos. Palestinian civilians in these situations are deprived of basic human rights and those who try to continue farming their land to feed their families are subjected to vicious attacks by armed illegal settlers and Israeli troops.

Mass anti-apartheid demonstration in South Bethlehem, this Friday

A Mass Demonstration Against the Annexation Wall, South Bethlehem

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
25 April 2007

This Friday, April 27, Palestinian residents of the south Bethlehem area are calling on international and Israeli anti-Apartheid activists to join them in a mass demonstration against Israel’s Apartheid Wall.

Palestinians must take a bypass road to the Beit Fajjar junction. Israelis and international activists are expected to meet at the Gush Etzion junction on Route 60, where they will then meet up with the Palestinians at the Beit Fajjar nearby. Palestinians will pray at the junction near the Israeli settlements of Efrat and Gush Etzion, then demonstrate against the Apartheid Wall.

Activists will join the residents of all of the villages and towns being hurt by the erection of the annexation wall around the settlements of Gush Etzion and Efrat for a mass procession and demonstration. For many weeks the residents who live in villages and towns to the south and west of Bethlehem have been holding weekly demonstrations against Apartheid Wall that is being built on Palestinian lands. This week, for the first time, a non-violent protest will be held in which the residents of all of the villages that are affected by the wall, including residents from Beit-Jala, Walaja and Btttir in the North to Um Salamuna, Beit Ummar, Surif and Al-Jaba in the South.

Destruction of the land and uprooting of trees by Israeli bulldozers are currently happening to make way for the Apartheid Wall. Mahmoud Zawahira, from the village of Umm Salamuna, called on internationals and Israelis to join in on the demonstration, saying, “before we are caged in like animals behind walls of concrete, let’s come together to stop the destruction and share our stories with the world.”

When asked about what he thinks may happen at the demo, Mahmoud said, “We will chant songs of freedom and show symbols of Occupation. We are expecting attacks from the Israeli settlers and hope that internationals and Israeli activists come to witness and to help.”

Internationals and Israelis will meet at the Gush Etzion Junction and Palestinians will gather at the Beit Fajjar Junction at 11am. The demonstration will begin at 11:30 and is expected to last about 2 hours.

For more information, contact:
Mahmoud Zawahira, 0599-586-004, 0522-591-386
ISM Media Office, 0599-943-157, 02-297-1824

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Background:

In addition to the separation fence that is beeing built close to the Green Line north and west of the Gush Etzion Settlements, another wall is built that will effectively close off the area from the west and south and whose goal is to isolate the Gush Etzion region from the western West Bank. This is part of the declared plan of the Israeli government to annex settlement clusters. Not only will 60,000 dunams of land be expropriated, but nineteen thousand Palestinians will be caged in by the enclaves created by this wall, and thus will be cut off from their land, medical and educational services, sources of employment, outlets for their agricultural produce, and from community and family connections.

The fate of these nineteen thousand Palestinians is clear: For most, life in the ghetto will prove intolerable and they will be forced to leave their homes and land – easy prey for proponents of annexation and real estate sharks; the rest, the weaker and the more submissive, will live without rights and will supply cheap labor for the building of settlements.

This wall will also spell disaster for those residents who border on the enclave from the outside, since it is being built on the agricultural lands which supply the livelihood of many residents from Beit Jala in the north to Beit Umar in the south; it will also cut them off from most of their land, which will be closed off inside the enclave. For these residents as well, the wall’s meaning is poverty and hunger, since the land that they will no longer be able to reach has become the last means of livelihood left to them.

This is not a security fence. This is a wall of annexation, expulsion, and oppression.

It is not yet too late to stop the bulldozers from turning the vineyards and the fruit orchards into dust, but if we do not join the struggle today, in just a few weeks this nightmare will be realized and become an established fact.

PNN: From Palestine to Virginia Tech

From Palestine to Virginia Tech: We are with you in this Time of Pain
by Sami Awad, 20 April 2007

Two days ago a tragic event took place in Virginia Tech in the US that shocked not only the people of the United States but people all across the globe. A violent massacre took place there that resulted in thirty two killed, individuals who presented different cultures, religions and nationalities. In a sign of solidarity the people of Palestine in general and those from the Southern villages surrounding the Holy city of Bethlehem dedicated their weekly nonviolent activity against the building of Apartheid wall to the families of the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre.

Every Friday, Palestinians, internationals, and Israeli nonviolent activists gather in the Southern villages of Bethlehem to protest against the building of the Apartheid Wall that will eventually destroy the livelihood of these villages. This Friday, the protest began with a silent procession by the group of about fifty participants. We carried banners and leaflets with the Virginia Tech logo and statements supporting them in this time of pain. Thirty two olive trees were also carried in the procession to remember each person killed in the massacre. The olive tree is a global symbol of peace and hope.

Once we reached the path created by the by the bulldozers for the building of the Apartheid Wall we dug the earth and plated the thirty two olive trees in a row – instead of building an ugly wall that divides people, let us plant trees that bring people together. Several of the participants made statements condemning the violence that we all, as the human family are witnessing and condemning the building of the Apartheid wall and the killing of innocents. Over 150 Israeli soldiers came to dismantle our protest. Our commitment to nonviolence and to achieve our goal completely paralyzed their weapons and their goals and eventually our power made them withdrawal. The planting of the trees was followed by reciting the names of all those who were killed in the Virginian massacre followed by a fifteen minute period of silence before the group moved back to the villages.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said “where there is an injustice somewhere … there is an injustice everywhere.” This also means that where there is violence somewhere there is violence everywhere… We need to work for peace somewhere so that peace can also spread every where.

IMEMC: Bethlehem tree planting in memorial of Virginia students

Bethlehem: activists plant trees in memorial to students killed in Virginia
by Najib Farag, April 21, 2007

Palestinian residents and international peace activists, including Americans, and Israelis, held on Friday a protest against the Israeli Annexation Wall surrounding and suffocating Um Salmouna village, near the West Bank city of Bethlehem, and planted 32 trees to commemorate the students killed in Virginia – USA when a student opened fire at his fellow students in the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

The protesters planted olive trees to commemorate the casualties in that deadly shooting. The trees were planted in an area where the Israeli army bulldozed the lands and uprooted trees to construct the Annexation Wall.

The Wall construction around Um Salmouna village started two months ago; it will annex and isolate more than 1500 Dunams or orchards that belong to the residents.

Also, the protesters carried Palestinian flags and posters slamming the Israeli violations and attacks against the Palestinian people and their land.

Khalid Al Azza, head of the Land Defense Committee in Bethlehem, stated that the idea of planting the trees is to express the Palestinians rejection to all massacres and crimes against innocent civilians regardless of their color, race and ethnicity.

He also slammed the American policies, the occupation of Iraq and the US policies of Afghanistan and other countries. He further said that the United States is not really interested in stopping the bloodshed in Palestine and continues to support the Israeli occupation.

Sami Awad, head of the Holy Land Trust Foundation, stressed on the importance of non-violent struggle against the Israeli policies, occupation, settlements and the Wall,

He stated that the Palestinians are stronger than the occupation since they defend their right and struggle for freedom and liberation, which is a right guaranteed by the international norms and regulations.

Moreover, Mahmoud Rasheed, head of the Um Salmouna village council, said that this Wall is a disaster to this village and the surrounding villages since it isolates 1500 Dunams in addition to blocking the main roads leading to these villages.

He added that this Wall will affect Bethlehem area as a whole since these villages provide the area with vegetables and fruits, but now thousands of residents are facing bad economic conditions after they became unable to access their lands regularly and unable to sell their agricultural products.

Mahmoud Zawahra, head of the Wall resistance committee in southern Bethlehem villages, appealed the international organizations, and the United Nations, to interfere in order to remove the Wall since it isolates the residents from each other and from their orchards, schools, medical facilities and disconnects them from the rest of the country.

Serena, an American peace activist, said that this activity gives her mixed feelings of relief and sadness since it connects different citizens together in solidarity, and commemorates the massacre in Virginia to prove that human blood is precious and should not be spilled.

She also said that the Palestinians are suffering under the occupation, bleeding from its guns and walls, and that there suffering should be ended.