Tag: Bethlehem

Apartheid Wall demo at Al Khadr this Friday

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

This Friday the villagers of Al Khadr will be joined by Israeli and international peace activists in a demonstration against the Apartheid Wall being built through the village. There will be a march to the construction site from the mosque after prayers at 1pm.

The Apartheid Wall in Al Khader will isolate 95% of the village’s land behind the wall. A tunnel is also being constructed destroying more of the village’s land and controlling movement from villages West of the Wall to Bethlehem. The route of the Wall though Al Khadr belies Israeli ‘security’ claims and reveals its true nature which is to annex as much land as possible while fencing Palestinians into ghettos.

Several peaceful demos have taken place on recent Fridays in this mixed Christian and Muslim village where both sections of the community cooperate in the campaign against the Wall.

A spokesperson from the popular committee against the Wall in the Bethlehem region said, “an aim of the demonstrations is to build bridges between communities and show that peaceful co-existence between both sides is possible”.

For more information call:
ISM Media office: 02 297 1824

Separation Wall Divides Neighborhood in Bethlehem

From Bethlehem Bloggers

The comments that will be posted by Zionists after this blog entry will possibly try and argue that “the wall is to stop the terrorists” and “if the terrorists stopped bombing Israel, there would be no need for this” and “the Palestinians bomb us because they hate us.” or sometimes even “we won the war fair and square – therefore we won the land.” All of these comments have been posted in responce to previous blog articles before.

Non of these comments have anything whatsoever to do with the above pictures. This ‘tunnel’ was driven through a previously prosperous area of Bethlehem in order to create a ‘safe passage’ so that Jewish Orthodox settlers could visit Rachel’s Tomb.

To clarify this further, this entire area has been economically and infastructurally devastated – distrupting and destroying the day to day lives of thousands of Christian and Muslim Palestinians – so that a small number of Israeli citizens can continue to visit a holy site in a city which they have no entitlement to under international law.

This sort of action does not demonstrate that the Israeli state feels hatred towards the Palestinians. Nor does it demonstrate that they are intimidated by the Palestinians and wish to secure themselves against attack. It proves that the Israeli state is willing to entirely ignore the very existence of the Palestinians. It proves that they are willing to place the religous ‘right to worship’ of their own people above the very infastructural viability of a Palestinian city.

It is for this reason that the Palestinians are angry. It is for this reason that some in Palestine choose to respond with violence. For every street that is calved in half, for every civilian that is ‘accidentally’ killed in a raid, for every field that is destroyed to make way for a new settler road, for every house that is demolished to build a new settlement; hundreds more Palestinians are over come with anger. If you want peace, the first move must be yours Israel, and you know what it is; LEAVE US ALONE, WITDRAW FROM THE ILLEGALLY OCCUPIED TERRITORIES AND STOP DESTROYING OUR INFASTRUCTURE. TREAT US AS EQUALS AND WE WILL TREAT YOU AS NEIGHBORS.

Villagers of Jabaa to Reclaim Their Land: Thursday and Friday

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The village of Jabaa will hold two non-violent direct actions against the theft of their land by Israeli settlers and soldiers this weekend. A month ago, close to a thousand of the village’s olive trees were uprooted to prepare for the construction of the Wall, which will confiscate 600 Dunams, or roughly one sixth of the village’s agricultural land. If the wall is built according to its planned route the farmers of Jabbaa will be cut off from the means of their livelihood.

Therefore, on Thursday June 1’st at 10 am the residents of Jabaa, accompanied by international and Israeli solidarity activists, will march to the planned route of the wall at the location of Beit Shemesh checkpoint. Following this, on Friday June 2nd, at 9am farmers will bring a bulldozer and attempt to plough their land in the Jum Jum area near the settlement of Bat Ayin. The owners of this land have been prevented by the Bat Ayin settlers from accessing their land for the last seven years. In previous instances when they have approached their own land, these Bat Ayin settlers have beaten the landowners and fired shots towards them and their live stock, killing some of their sheep.

For more information call:
ISM media office: 02-2971824

Villagers of Jab’a to Work Their Land After Settler Vandalism

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Over two days, Thursday the 25th and Friday the 26th of May, the villagers of Jab’a, south-west of Bethlehem will attempt to access and work their land, from 9am till 3pm.The villagers will bring agricultural equipment to develop the over-grown land. Settler intimidation and violence had, until very recently, prevented them from accessing.

Last month, with the support of international and Israeli activists the villagers were able to work the land for the first time in 5 years. A few days later, settlers herded 150 goats onto the land, where they destroyed the village’s crops.

Jab’a is a Palestinian village of 900 people, which has 4000 dunams of land, 200 of which will be de-facto annexed to Israeli after the building of the illegal apartheid wall there. It is near the Gush Etziyon settlement block and faces frequent problems with settler violence.

This action is supported by the Popular Committee from nearby Beit Ommar. The people of Beit Omar recently held a similar land access action in their village. See the report from the 18th of April on www.palsolidarity.org entitled “Jab’a Ploughs its Land” for an account of the last such action in Jab’a.

For more information call:
Mosa Abu Mariya: 054 583 8925
ISM Media office 02 297 1924

Jab’a Ploughs its Land

This morning I travelled to the village of Jab’a, just South of Bethlehem, where local Palestinian farmers have faced intimidation by settlers when trying to access their land. Jab’a is a village of 900 people facing annexation of part of its land by the Apartheid Wall. It is near the Gush Etziyon settlement block and faces frequent problems with settler violence.

This morning about 50 Internationals, Israelis and Palestinians converged at Om Al Jamjoum below the illegal settlement of Beit Ain to plough the land. Settlers watched from the hilltop settlement as Palestinians brought a tractor onto the land for the first time in five years.

The army and border police arrived at about 10.30am and spoke to the activists. There was talk of a closed military zone in the area but Israeli activists convinced soldiers that this would be illegal in light of the Israeli Supreme Court ruling on land disputes.

The Palestinians ploughed the land up to about 200 feet from Beit Ain. Settlers tried to intervene, sitting in front of the tractor and blocking the work on Palestinian land, but were outmaneuvered. The action was very calm, passing with the minimum of confrontation. And the Palestinians successfully accessed their land.

Many of the activists were Israeli, from Ta’ayush, Anarchists Against the Wall and Rabbis for Human Rights, and the settlers tried to convince them in Hebrew that they had been fooled by the Palestinians and that they had no problem with the Palestinians accessing the land. However, the land told a different story, it was completely overgrown and untended to. Settler intimidation and violence had prevented the farmers’ access before today… If we had not had large numbers of activists then the settlers would have behaved very differently.

Overall a very successful and productive act of resistance to the occupation

The Wall Must Fall