Mohammad Ahmad Hamad in the back of the police car.
Two Palestinian children from the village of Bil’in were arrested mid morning on Tuesday April 12th.
Mohammad Abd Al Fattah Burnatt, aged 17, and Mohammad Ahmad Hamad aged 13 were tending a herd of goats close to the illegal Israeli settlement of Modi’in Elite. The settlement is built on land that has belonged to the village for generations.
According to Hamad’s father, the boys picked up one of the pieces of scrap metal that litter the fields next to the construction site. One of the settlers noticed and called the police accusing them of theft. The police arrested the pair and later made additional charges of entering Israel illegally, and of throwing stones at a recent demonstration in Bil’in against the apartheid wall.
In an ironic protest against Israeli settler tactics, the village has established it’s own settlement outpost on land stolen for settlement construction. Villagers and a peace activist from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) were at the outpost, and ran across in time to witness the arrest. Afterwards, they shepherded the goats to a safe enclosure.
The ISM secured the release on bail of Mohammad Ahmad Hamad (13) for a cash payment of 5,000 NIS early this afternoon. It is not known when the boys’ trial will take place. The ISM has been active in supporting the village of Bil’in’s non violent protests and legal action against the building of the settlements on village land, and the construction of the apartheid wall. If Israel completes the wall and the settlements, about half of the village’s pasture and olive groves, including a holy site, will be stolen.
The ISM urges all its supporters to continue raising money for the legal fund, so that we can continue to support non-violent protest against illegal occupation and theft of Palestinian land, and continue to free jailed children.
To donate see the PayPal link at palsolidarity.org
Villagers in Bil’in, Beit Sira, and Salem will continue to protest against the annexation of their land this Friday, despite threats of collective punishment by the Israeli Civil Administration.
Bil’in villagers, joined by Israeli and international activists and a Tibetan monk, will hold their weekly demonstration against the wall, which annexes village land into the illegal Modi’in Elite settlement.
Beit Sira villagers, Israeli and international activists, will hold their weekly demonstration against the annexation barrier that illegally seizes land for the Makabim settlement.
Both Bil’in and Beit Sira demonstrations will start after midday prayers (around noon,) heading off from the villages’ mosques.
Salem villagers will be joined by Israeli and international human rights workers as they farm their land. They are trying to protect villagers from the heavy settler violence that has been occurring recently.
Last week a 68 year-old Salem villager, Saber Shtaya, was brutally attacked by settlers. He has been in the hospital since the attack and just today woke up from a coma.
Salem farmers and their supporters will set out from the village at 8:00am.
For more information call:
Beit Sira -Mansur 0545420464
Bil’in – Abdullah 0547-258-210
Salem –Arik Ascherman (Rabbis for Human Rights) 050-5607034
ISM media office at 02-2971824
The Israeli Civil Administration has threatened to deny workers in West Bank villages permits to work in Israel if their demonstrations against the occupation continue. Workers in Bil’in, Beit Sira, Beit Likya, and Harbata have received threats, but the villages have continued their demonstrations regardless
Last week a member of the Civil Administration calling himself “Samir”, phoned Mahmud Samara Abu Ala, a 60 year-old merchant from Bil’in, and told him “not to bother” trying to renew his work permit. Mahmud asked if the Civil Administration was systematically denying permits to people in the village and Samir replied that they would continue to deny permits as long as the demonstrations continue.
Before the Friday, April 8th demonstration in Beit Sira, a member of the Civil Administration called the head of the village council, Ali Hassan Mahmud Abu Safeya, in to tell him that the Administration would stop giving permission to villagers to work in Israel. Thirty families are at least partially supported by locals who work in Israel.
This threat of systematic denial is consistent with the army’s practice of collective punishment. Israel, as an occupying power, is subject to the Geneva Convention, which states that collective punishments are a war crime. Article 33 of the Fourth Convention states that “collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.” By threatening the villages with the denial of work permits, Israel is attempting to intimidate the villages into stopping the demonstrations.
According to Israel’s Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya’alon, the overriding goal of such permit denials is to phase out Palestinian workers from Israel. “The goal is to stop Palestinians from working in Israel by 2008” he said on March 10th 2006.
As Palestinians are increasingly being denied work permits, Israel is continuing to make it harder for a Palestinian state to be economically viable. The apartheid wall is annexing Palestinian land from farmers, making it impossible for some to access their land. Recently, Israeli banks have cut ties with Palestinian banks in a further attempt to harm the Palestinian economy.
Each month since the elections, Israel refuses to give back $50 million of Palestinian tax funds they withhold. International governments have also been cutting off funds to the Hamas led Palestinian government in what Prime Minster Ismail Haniyeh is calling “blackmail”.
Friday’s Bil’in demonstration was a memorial for the twelfth victim of the apartheid wall. Eyad Taha Salame Taha, a 28 year-old man from Beit Annan, was drowned in a flood caused by the wall in Bil’in on Sunday, April 2, 2006.
Grills covering the drainage pipes that in the flash flood formed a dam. Mud carried by the water sticks to the concrete surrounding the pipes and shows the height of the flood. Top left: Villagers errect a makeshift monument to Eyad.
Eyad and his brother, Raad, were traveling to work when flood waters swept their car away. They got out of the car and were washed towards the barrier by strong currents. Raad was rescued by villagers, but Eyad was found unconscious, entangled in the razor wire of the apartheid barrier.
The site on the day of the flood. The foliage in the water is submerged olive trees.
Local Bil’in activists, joined by Israelis and internationals, held their weekly peaceful demonstration by the wall next to the village. Two people from the village were arrested, including Mohammed Khatib from the Bil’in popular committee against the wall. As long as
international activists were filming, the soldiers treated the detainees well, but when the cameras were gone, the soldiers beat them up. They were both released after the demonstration.
After demonstrating at the usual site, the activists marched to the place where Eyad was drowned. The villagers put up a makeshift monument with posters and lavender to honor Eyad. Speeches were given about this horrible loss and about how the wall was to blame. The activists charged that the Israeli government should be held responsible for this death.
Posters of Eyad Taha Salame Taha on the razor wire that forms this part of the wall.
Eyad’s tragic death highlights the reality of the destructive effects of the wall on the lives of Palestinians in Bil’in and elsewhere along the wall.
Unfortunately, his is not the first life lost as a result of the wall. Eleven others lost their lives in demonstrations against the illegal annexation barrier, including five children under the age of 16.
Mohammad Fadel Hashem Rayan, age 25, from Beit Duko was killed in Beit Ijza on February 26, 2004 by live ammunition shot at him by border police during a demonstration against the wall.
Zakaria MaHmud Salem, age 28, from Beit Ijza was killed in Beit Ijza on February 26, 2004 by live ammunition shot at him by border police during a demonstration against the wall.
Abdal Rahman Abu Eid, age 62, from Bidu was killed in Bidu on February 26, 2004 from a heart attack after his house was tear gassed.
Mohammad Daud Badwan, age 21, from Bidu was shot by border police snipers during a demonstration in Biddu on March 26, 2004 and died April 3, 2004.
Diaa Abdel Karim Abu Eid, age 24, from Bidu was killed in Bidu by live ammunition shot at him during a demonstration against the wall on April 4, 2004.
Hussain mahmud Awwad Aliyan, age 17, from Budrus, was killed in Beitunia on April 16, 2004 at a demonstration against the wall, after live ammunition was shot at demonstrators.
Islam Hashem Rizik Zhahran, age 14, from Deir Abu Mashal was shot with a rubber coated metal bullet in Deir Anu Mashal on April 18, 2004 and died April 28, 2004.
Alaa Mohammad Abdel Rahman Khalil, age 14, from Betunia was killed in Betunia February 15, 2005 by live ammunition shot by a security guard while throwing stones at a wall security jeep.
Jamal Jaber Ibrahim Assi, age 15, from Beit Likya was killed in Beit Likya on May 4, 2005 by live ammunition shot in his pelvis while throwing stones in a demonstration against the wall.
Odai Mofeed Mahmud Assi, age 14, from Beit Likya was killed in Beit Likya on May 4, 2005 by live ammunition shot in his chest while throwing stones in a demonstration against the wall.
Mahayub Nimer Assi, age 15, from Beit Likya was killed in Beit Likya on June 8, 2005 by live ammunition shot by a security guard while he was at his family’s orchards, about 200 meters from the bulldozers parking lot.
It is the hope of activists, as we continue our protests and demonstrations, that these lives will not have been lost in vain. It is in their memory that we protest tomorrow and every day thereafter.
Palestinian and Israeli Activists Demonstrate Together in Bil’in
Joel Beinin has written a thought provoking review of Shlomo Ben-Ami’s Scars of War, Wounds of Peace in the April 17th issue of The Nation. It’s well worth reading in full, and Beinin finishes on an optimistic note:
Where, then, is the hope for a peaceful solution to the conflict? I believe that it lies in the young Palestinians, Jewish Israelis and internationals who have been fighting shoulder to shoulder in weekly battles against the Israeli security forces since late 2003 to halt the construction of the separation wall. This struggle has been led by Palestinian villagers in unheralded places like Budrus and Bil’in, organized in the Popular Committee Against the Wall. Although their successes have so far been minor, these actions have demonstrated that trust is built through joint political action and that whether there will eventually be two states or one, coexistence, not separation, is the foundation for peace.
