Candidates from all Palestinian political parties and factions, including Hamas, Fatah, Al Mubadara and others will join the villagers of Bil’in on Friday the 20th of January at 12;00 AM in a march to the construction site of the annexation barrier on their land. Members of the Israeli Knesset and Israeli and international activists will also participate in the protest.
When asked about Hamas participating in nonviolent demonstrations that are supported by Israeli activists, Hamas’s spokesperson Hassan Youssef told the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz that if they see that this kind of demonstration can end Israel’s occupation, then they will do it.
The people of Bil’in have built an “outpost” adjacent to the illegal Jewish settlement outpost Matityahu Mizrah currently being constructed on the villages land. That has been rendered inaccessible to the villagers by the annexation barrier.
The Israeli authorities efforts to remove and halt the expansion of the Palestinian outpost is in stark contrast to their support for the illegal expansion of Modi’in Elite.
The route of the wall in Bil’in was determined in order to allow for the unauthorised expansion of the Modi’in Elite settlement and the de-facto annexation of over half of the villages land. An appeal by the villagers will be heard in the Israeli Supreme Court on February first.
For more information in Bil’in:
Mohammed Khatib 054 585 18 93
Abdullah 054 725 82 10
One of the activities of ISM is to create a physical presence of support for Palestinians resisting the occupation. The presence of international volunteers with cameras in the West Bank has a deterring effect on brutality and excess violence by the Israeli military who want to avoid the bad publicity of an international incident. It is abhorrent that the lives of international volunteers are given more value than that of Palestinians, but this unfortunately is the reality in Palestine. This is a symptom of the new anti-Semitism. Like Jews were scapegoated by the 3rd Reich, Arabs and Muslims have become the new scapegoats of the governments of the West who are incapable of doing any introspection beyond “Why do they hate us so much?”
Bil’in is a village of about 1000 people just north east of Ramallah. For the past year, the village has been resisting the seizure of their land by the Israeli government who have developed a large settlement nearby on the villager’s land. A wall is being built up around the settlement, cutting the Palestinians off from their former farm land. In response to this illegal seizure of the land (building settlements on occupied land is illegal under international law) the village has built their own “settlement” on the Israeli side of the wall. This is a one room shack built in protest.
The shack has been threatened with demolition because the Israeli government calls it “illegal” which is, of course, quite ironic. For the past few days we have been supporting the Palestinians of Bil’in by being present at their “settlement,” hoping to protect it from demolition. This is just one of the creative, non-violent methods the Palestinian resistance is using to draw attention to their cause.
I made a somewhat crude map of what is going on:
It was very heart-warming sitting around a campfire at the shack with Palestinian, Israeli and international activists singing songs, goofing off and having fun together. It could have been the opening line to some sarcastic joke, but it was real, honest and genuine and that made me very happy.
The IDF showed up a few times, we thought maybe they would try to bust up our party but they came and left rather quickly.
People have questioned what is the point of doing this? What is it accomplishing? Last night I saw for the first time what our presence accomplishes.
Abdullah is the owner of the apartment we are staying in in Bil’in and one of the ISM coordinators in Bil’in. He woke us up last night at around 2am saying there were Israeli soldiers in the village and that we needed to come out and demonstrate to them that there were people here who would hold them accountable for anything they did, that they would not be able to go around terrorizing the village and get away with it.
We walked down the street to the mosque where they had passed by earlier and littered the ground a bunch of leaflets. The leaflets said:
To the people of Bil’in:
The Israeli Defense Force who are protecting the Israeli civilians from terrorist acts are determined to prevent any act that creates obstacles to the work on the security fence.
The construction of the security fence aims to prevent terrorists from getting into Israel.
Do not participate in any acts that create obstacles for the building of the security fence.
Do not let those people (demonstrators) effect your daily life. These acts are against your interests.
The IDF will respond strongly to any act that might effect the security fence.
-IDF leadership
Someone called Abdullah on his phone and said they were heading our way. A few seconds later two humvees with approximately 6 or 7 soldiers in full riot gear pulled up. I walked straight towards them, not really having any plan of what to do or say, just knowing that I needed to confront them and show them that there were people here who were not going to let them get away with bad behavior. My heart was pounding in my chest. I was thinking “ok, this is it, this is how it ends, you are going to get shot right here and this is how you are going to die.” But you know, I would rather take 100 of their bullets right now, than die of old age later because I was afraid to stand up for what I believed in, and so I kept on walking. And of course I didn’t get shot, of course I had nothing to be afraid of because I am not Palestinian. We stood in front of them and Marcy told them in Hebrew they they should go home and that they were not welcome here. They told her to go home. It was tense for a few minutes as six unarmed women and two unarmed men stood in front of the seven or eight fully armed soldier waving their guns around. Then they left. Our first victory!
The weekly non-violent protests against the Israelis Apartheid wall continued yesterday, when Palestinians from the village of Bil’in displayed their resistence to the ongoing theft of their village’s land. Accompanied by international and Israeli activists, the crowd of approximately 100 people marched to the construction site where the Apartheid Wall is gradually cutting off the village from much of its land. At least 50 IOF and Israeli Border Police were on hand to prevent the demonstrators from crossing the barrier and reching the recently established “Centre for Joint Struggle” adjacent to the illegal settlement outpost of Metityahu Mizrah.
Early into the demonstration, the IOF began shooting tear gas canisters from their rifles directly at the Palestinian, Israeli and International activists, hitting one international in the leg. Later on, and without any provocation, the soldiers and Israeli Border Police attacked the crowd and detained one Palestinian man with an umbrella in his hand. The soldiers then used the Palestinian man as a bargaining chip, saying that he would be released if the demonstration ended. A Palestinian detainee can be kept in custody for up to six months without charges, so this vulgar display of arbitrary force from the IOF soldiers eventually caused the demonstration to recede.
Approximately half of Bil’in’s lands are being isolated from the village by the Wall. The Israeli government argues that the route of the wall in Bil’in was determined purely for security reasons. However, a brief visit to the village shows this to be false.
The olive groves were in a cloud of teargas, and soldiers fired rubber-coated metal bullets at will while the demonstrators started to walk back towards the village. It seems that when faced with non-violent protest, the IOF has no interest in any response other than indiscrimminate violence.
Following today’s hearing in the Supreme Court (HCJ 143/06) Judge Ayala Prokachya issued a new temporary injunction forbidding all building whatsoever in the Matityahu East compound in the settlement Modi’in Illit. The judge further ordered “to examine all permits already issued and to determine their position regarding their legality by 20 January.”
The appeal was made by Attorney Michael Sfard on behalf of Peace Now. Matityahu East is built on land stolen by the State of Israel from the West Bank village of Bil’in, a theft facilitated by the apartheid wall that is currently under construction.
Right next to Metityahu East, on their own land and with the permission of the Village Counsel, the residents of Bil’in set up an outpost of their own, dubbed “The Center For Joint Struggle”, which is subject to the same treatment: all further building is prohibited until the Israeli Supreme Court decides whether to demolish it or not.
Today at 11:00 am, the DCO, the IDF, Police and Border Police raided the Palestinian outpost and confiscated one level tool, a sack of cement and a map of the West Bank, in order to prevent further construction. However, the bulldozers, cement sacks, and tools on the construction site of Matityahu East have not been confiscated, which illustrates the difference in treatment for Palestinians and settlers in the face of Israeli “justice”.
This last Monday, in violation of the Supreme Court order, construction continued in Matityahu East, until Human Rights Workers and Palestinians helped to enforce the building halt by blocking the path of the construction vehicles.
For further information:
Michael Sfard (Attorney) – 054 471 39 30
Dror Etkes (Settlement Watch, Peace Now) – 054 489 93 51, 02 566 06 48
For court transcript in Hebrew, click here.
After the noon prayers on Friday, January 13th, Palestinian villagers in Bil’in, accompanied by Israeli and international activists, will march from the village to the “Centre for Joint Struggle,” the legal Palestinian ‘outpost.’ The outpost is built adjacent to the illicit Jewish settlement outpost Matityahu Mizrah, currently being constructed on land belonging to Bil’in, and in flagrant violation of Israeli law. All settlements, however, are illegal under international law and convention.
The Palestinian ‘outpost’ is a symbol of protest against the annexation wall for the villagers of Bil’in. They are currently engaged in a court battle over its threatened demolition, which has had the effect of forcing the Israeli government to stop work on the nearby Jewish settlement outpost of Matityahu Mizrah.
The people of Bil’in are using the symbols and language employed by Israel for the theft of Palestinian land in a bid to hold onto village land that Israel is attempting to annex for the Wall and settlements. The Israeli government’s efforts to remove the Palestinian outpost contrast starkly with Israeli government’s support for the establishment of hundreds of illegal Israeli settlements and outposts throughout the West Bank. Approximately half of Bil’in’s lands are being isolated from the village by the Wall. The village will lose at least 1,950 dunams if the Wall is not removed.
Last week IDF soldiers declared the area a closed military zone and denied the demonstrators access to reach the Palestinian ‘settlement.’ The Palestinians of Bil’in along with their international and Israeli supporters, will make yet another attempt to defy the brutality of the Israeli military and reach the Palestinian ‘outpost’ of ‘Western Bil’in.’
For more information in Bil’in:
Mohammed Khatib 054 585 18 93
Abdullah 054 725 82 10
