Tag: Bil’in

Eid without a father and husband

16 November 2010 | Evie Soli, International Solidarity Movement

An interview with the wives of Abdallah and Adeeb Abu Rahma

Al Eid is a holy time of the year for Muslims. Families gather and visit each other over the four holidays, which are for most a time for families to be together. When one member of the family is missing, it makes it hard to enjoy Al Eid in the same way. Thousands of families of Palestinian political prisoners are suffering because a family member is in prison. For Majida, wife of Abdallah Abu Rahma who has now been held for one year in Israeli jail under the accusation of “incitement,” every day without her husband is difficult. She expresses the pain of seeing her children missing their dad not only during Eid, but every day. Louma (8) and Layam (7) used to go with Abdallah on family visits, and are now crying when talking about their dad. His 1 and-a-half-year-old son Layath does not even remember his dad as he was only 7 months old the night Abdallah was arrested. “He says Baba when he sees Abdallah’s picture, but of course he does not know him, since he was just a baby”, Majida says. Also, for Adeeb Abu Rahma’s children, Eid is not the same without their father. Both families were hoping to have their fathers home for Eid, but the military prosecution managed to postpone the release in both cases.

Arrested in front of his children

Abdallah's wife Majida and daughters Louma (8) and Layam (8) during preparations for Eid.

I meet Majida and her children during the preparations for Eid. Louma and Layam are helping their mother in the house, while she is making the Palestinian dish “dawali” (rice rolled in grape leaves). She recalls the night when the family was brutally woken up by the Israeli Army breaking into their house: “I woke up by someone knocking the door 1:30am on the 10th of December (2009). Abdallah said it might be soldiers – because who else would come to pay a visit at that time?” Suddenly the door was broken down, and armed soldiers stormed the house. Abdallah was taken out in the stairway, with four soldiers blocking him from seeing his wife and children. He was not allowed to go back to say goodbye or to change his clothes, only his two daughters could pass the soldiers to see him one last time. He had to change from night clothes in the stairway. Nine army jeeps and dogs were waiting outside the house. Majida explains how the daughters reacted: “Louma asked: Am I dreaming? Did soldiers take my dad? Layam was asking the same – they both thought it was a nightmare.”

Missing their father

In the months before Abdallah was arrested almost one year ago, the army was carrying out frequent raids to look for him. The children were used to being woken up by masked soldiers entering the house at night, and were traumatized. After her father was arrested in the last night raid, 8 year old Layam told her mother that she was happy that the soldiers would not come back now. “Imagine how sad it is to hear that for a mother”, Majida says, “But now, when we speak about Abdallah, she cries. They both laugh and cry in the same time, because they miss him and they love him and remember him as a caring father and a friend. And I miss him too.”

While we are talking, Layath is grabbing a 2 meter long flagpole, saying “la, la l’jdar!” (no, no to the wall!), seeming as if he is on his way to a demonstration. “His name means ‘Lion’. He is small, but he is strong. He has to be strong” his mother says. He does not know what happened to his father, but he will when he gets older. The families of the people involved in Bil’in’s non-violent struggle against the Wall and settlements cannot sleep safely at night. Dozens of houses have been raided at night, and children are suffering from trauma after seeing fathers and brothers brutally taken away by masked soldiers. Sleep difficulties, bedwetting, and disorders are common consequences among children who have experienced Israeli soldiers storming their homes at night. Many, like Abdallah’s children, have also seen soldiers beat someone up during a raid.

“Eid is not Eid”

Three of Adeeb's children: Ahmad (10), Batoul (4) and Falasteen (8)

Five months before Abdallah was taken from his home, his cousin Adeeb Abu Rahma was arrested in a demonstration in Bil’in. His wife has only been allowed to visit him once at Ofer Military Prison where both Adeeb and Abdallah are held. Adeeb’s daughter Radja (20) has not been able to see him at all, due to what Israel calls “security reasons”. This Eid is not the same as before for the family consisting of Adeeb’s wife and 9 children, aged from 4 to 20. Radja says, “This Eid there is not happiness like there used to be in this family. In Eid our family used to be together, visiting and having guests. Our father is not here, and we all miss him. Eid is not Eid without him.”

After Adeeb’ arrest, the family hoped he would be released shortly. However, after weeks and then months of waiting, the Israeli Military Court sentenced him to 1 year, and his family hoped that they would see him soon since he had almost served his sentence. But the military prosecution appealed and now Adeeb is to be released the 12th December. Exactly 1.5 years will have passed since Radja saw her father the last time.

Struggling financially

The financial situation has been hard the last 1.5 years. There is no big brother to help support the family financially. The eldest son Mohammed is 16 years old and still in school. Two daughters are in university, and are now struggling to pay the fees. The family’s income is from their small market, but their household is suffering from the absence of Adeeb’s income as a taxi driver. Umm Mohammed is also alone in her responsibility to raise the children; though they are all helping out as best they can, most of the children are not old enough to have responsibility. She misses her husband, and has been present in every court hearing so that at least she can see Adeeb. But she has not been allowed to talk to him except for the one time she was allowed to visit. Radja explains how Batoul (4) reacted when she visited her father in prison: “She did not understand why he could not be home. At home she cried and was constantly nervous. She asked: Why did they take him? When she saw him in prison she was in shock, she would not speak. After a while, when she realized that he is not coming home, she started to talk. But what can we answer to her question? It’s clear that they took him and still are keeping him because they are afraid of the success of the non-violent demonstrations. It scares them that through the demonstrations the world can see what Israel is doing to us, so they fabricate evidence against the leaders and put them in prison. All Batoul knows is that her father is taken away from her and she does not understand why.”

Success in spite of suffering

Both Adeeb and Abdallah’s families are obviously strong, though given no choice but to manage without their husband and father. They have been waiting in uncertainty for months before the trials, and suffering severe disappointment since the appeal, which deprived the children of their fathers for another half a year. Adeeb Abu Rahma was in July sentenced to 1 year for “encouraging violence”, and another 6 months may be added on Thursday when the state prosecution appeals his sentence. Abdallah Abu Rahma was, according to the first court decision, supposed to be released this week, but his release is now postponed. Despite the frustrations and constant ache, both Adeeb’s and Abdallah’s families express hope because they know why they were arrested. Majida says:

“My husband was visible. He went to every demonstration, and spoke up against the Wall and the settlement. In spite of our suffering, and his son now growing up without knowing his father, we know that his actions were successful. Israel was so threatened by the demonstrations that they had to remove strong characters like my husband and Adeeb.”

Background

Abdallah Abu Rahmah

Abdallah Abu Rahmah has been a member of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements since its conception in 2004.

At 2am on 10 December 2009 (international Human Rights Day), exactly one year after Abdallah Abu Rahma received the Carl Von Ossietzky Medal from the International League for Human Rights, nine military vehicles surrounded his home in Ramallah. Israeli soldiers broke the door down, extracted Abdallah from his bed, blindfolded him and took him into custody.

After being convicted in September of incitement and organizing illegal marches, on October 12th, Abdallah Abu Rahmah was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment plus 6 months suspended sentence for 3 years and a fine of 5,000 NIS.

Following Abu Rahma’s convicition, the European Union put out a statement condemning the Persecution of Abu Rahmah. Representatives of all EU member states declared that they consider the route of the separation wall built on Palestinian land to be illegal, and that, as Abu Rahmah was “a human rights defender” participating in peaceful protests against this wall, they are concerned about his sentence of 12 months in prison by an Israeli military court.

The military prosecution against Abdallah Abu Rahmah will be petitioning to extend his detention on Thursday, November 18th, the day of his scheduled release.

Adeeb Abu Rahmah

Adeeb Abu Rahmah, a leading activist in the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, was arrested at 1:30pm on 10 July 2009 while taking part in the weekly demonstration against the wall in Bil’in.

He was sentenced to 12 months in prison for crimes of “incitement” (urging the villagers to come to the weekly protests), but the military prosecution appealed his sentence so he is still in prison after 15 months, pending the decision about the prosecution’s appeal.

Adeeb’s case relied on the forced confessions of four Bil’in youth – 14, 15 and 16 years old – arrested during a night raid by Israeli soldiers and forced to state that Adeeb told them to throw stones at the soldiers.

Weekly Demonstration Report — High Velocity Tear Gas Canisters used in an Nabi Saleh

14 November 2010 | International Solidarity Movement

Al Nabi Saleh demonstrators assaulted with high velocity tear gas canisters and rubber bullets

High-velocity tear gas canister used in an Nabi Saleh
The weekly demonstration at Al Nabih Saleh took place again this Friday, one day after the six year anniversary of Yasser Arafat’s death.

One young boy was shot in the hand with a rubber bullet, and tear gas canisters were shot throughout the whole demonstration to prevent demonstrators from reaching the village spring near the illegal settlement Halamish. Some canisters were shot directly at demonstrators. High velocity tear gas canisters were used despite their illegality for the danger they pose: high velocity tear gas canisters have killed and seriously injured many demonstrators in the past.

The demonstration was supposed to be preceded by a large celebration commemorating the legacy of Yasser Arafat. However, the military closed off all entrances to the village two hours before the demonstration, making it very hard for outside guests to make it to the event. Some people, including ISM volunteers, had to take a 30 minute detour through the olive groves, around the soldiers in order to enter the village. Other visitors were tear gassed when they attempted to enter the village through this alternative route.

Even with all these complications the celebration had about 200 people in attendance, and it was attended by all including internationals and Israelis. Children also marched, and chanted pro-Arafat chants. Right after the celebration, the demonstration started, at around 1 pm and continued until after sundown.

Bil’in marks the 6th anniversary of Arafat’s death
Photos by Hamde Abu Rahma

Bil'in on 6th anniversary of Arafat's death
Today’s demonstration in Bil’in was joined by a large number of Palestinians, Israelis and internationals. Members of the Fatah party were also present. The demonstration followed a week of constant night-raids by Israeli soldiers searching for the anti-wall village activist, Ashraf Khatib.

The protesters walked together towards the Apartheid Wall, carrying posters of Yasser Arafat, in commemoration of the Fatah leader who passed away six years ago. Speeches were held by members of the Fatah movement, while Israeli soldiers in the background prepared to attack the peaceful demonstrators.
The speakers were Sultan Abu Al Enanan from the Fatah movement, Kays Abu Leyla from the Executive Committee of PLO and the political office of the Democratic Front and Basel Monsur from the Popular Committee in Bil’in. They all promised to stay strong as Arafat would have wanted them to be, and to fight the occupation together.

Bil'in flooded with teargas
Even before the majority of the protesters moved forward, soldiers began firing tear gas from their position on the road leading to the village. Immediately the area was covered with tear gas, with canisters flying into the crowd from different directions. In response a few youngsters threw stones to the Israeli soldiers, in symbolic resistance to their violence. The soldiers moved into the field and continued to fire rounds of gas, chasing people back into the village. At one point live ammunition was fired, causing fear and the retreat of any protesters remaining in the area.

Tear gas canisters set fires on the ground in several places, which were put out by some protesters before they spread. The demonstration lasted for about two hours.

The Popular Committee and the people of Bil’in thanks their international and Israeli supporters for standing side by side with them in their struggle against Israel’s occupation.

New anti-wall demonstration in Al Walaja

Demonstrators march to the wall in Al-Walaja
For Friday, 11 November 2010, the local committee in Al-Walaja (a little village half an hour from Bethlehem) organized a peaceful protest to draw attention to the illegal building of a new Israeli settlement. The village is surrounded by settlements, so the Israeli government has decided to build a wall around the village with only one entrance.

The villagers won´t accept this without resistance. Last week this issue was in the supreme court but nothing was decided. The government has continued to build, so on Friday the inhabitants of Al Wlaja held a demonstration.

Friday’s demonstration passed along the wall and the people demanded the freedom to live without the wall or occupation. On the place where the wall would stand in the future, a villager held a speech about the circumstances of living in Qualqilya. Soon the Israeli Army came with 4 jeeps and soldiers walked with the people but there were no clashes. The people only stood in front of the soldiers and shouted their contentions to them. The demonstration ended after one hour.

The new settlement affects Al-Walaja in several ways: Not only does it encroach directly on existing Palestinian homes, but it towers over the village, and when the wall is completed it will isolate the village from agricultural areas and other parts of the community. A final tragic outcome of the wall and the new settlement is that if they’re completed Al-Walaja will be reduced in size from the 20,000 durhams of 1967 to a mere 2,000 durhams. Developers building the new settlement have not obtained permission to build, whereas the Palestinians have been denied for more than a year permission to complete homes nearby.

Israeli forces raid Bil’in in the night

9 November 2010 | International Solidarity Movement

Night-raid in Bil'in

Today at about 3 in the morning the Israeli army entered the village of Bil’in. About 50 soldiers came in by jeep and by foot. As they arrived to the two targeted houses, they ran and took positions outside, while a number of them entered the house of two brothers.

Soldiers hammered on the door of one house, demanding to see 30 year Ashraf al-Khatib. It turned out they were at the wrong house. They then went to another house by forcing one of Ahsraf’s brothers to show them the way to where Ashraf lives. Soldiers entered that house and his brother’s family’s house, and with the same procedure woke up the family, again asking for Ashraf al-Khatib. His brother, Haytham al-Khatib, is a journalist from the human right’s group B’tselem and was one of the people roused by the army. Though they had again entered a house where their target did not live, they remained inside for about one and a half hours, searching all the rooms.

Haytham al-Khatib tells about his 6 year old son’s reaction when he woke up and saw tens of soldiers in his house. “He asked me to close the door, because he didn’t want to see them.” Haytham himself was held back when he wanted to record the raid in his family’s houses -– the soldiers simply locked him in a room for more than an hour, away from his children and wife. The children in the houses are aged from 1 1/2 to 8 years, and this is not the first time they have seen their homes raided in the night.

Soldier during night-raid

However, after 1 1/2 hours of searching for the target in three houses, two of them in which he does not reside, Ashraf al-Khatib was not found. Five weeks ago Ashraf was shot in his leg with live ammunition by an Israeli soldier in a demonstration in Bil’in. The bullet went through his leg, breaking the bone. Even though he was heavily injured and in major pain, the soldiers tried to arrest him. Luckily he was brought to safety by fellow protesters and then to the hospital for surgery. Tonight the army decided to come and take him in front of his wife and 1 1/2 year old daughter instead.

The soldiers retreated from the targeted houses by foot, walking toward the military road that follows the illegal segregation fence in Bil’in, about 4:30 AM. The village of Bil’in has suffered from frequent night raids over the last few years, and a number of villagers have been taken for interrogation and imprisoned for their non-violent resistance to the occupation and segregation wall on Bil’in’s land.

Civil resistance to bring down the Walls

1 November 2010 | Ayed Morrar, Huffington Post

Budrus, a documentary film now debuting across the US, tells the story of a successful protest campaign by unarmed Palestinian civilians against Israel’s military occupation in my small West Bank village. Our struggle’s success and the consequent expansion of civil resistance to other West Bank communities may provide hope to viewers desperate for positive news from the Middle East, but today an Israeli crackdown on unarmed Palestinian protesters is threatening this growing movement. For our movement to thrive and serve as a true alternative to violence, we need Americans’ to demand that Israel, a close US ally, end this repression.

Budrus depicts our ten month campaign of protest marches in 2003-2004, which included participation by men, women and children, and by representatives from all Palestinian political factions, along with Israeli and international activists, to resist the construction of Israel’s Separation Barrier on our lands. Young women, led by my 15-year-old daughter Iltezam, ran past armed Israeli soldiers and jumped In front of the bulldozers that were uprooting our ancient olive trees. The soldiers regularly met us with clubs, rubber-coated bullets, curfews, arrests and even live ammunition. But we won in the end. The Israeli military rerouted the barrier in Budrus, allowing us access to almost all of our land.

The film ends with Palestinian and Israeli activists heading to the neighboring village of Ni’ilin where the struggle to save Palestinian land continues today. But following Budrus’s success and faced by a growing numbers of civilians protesting the confiscation of their lands, Israel has responded with military might, attempting to quell this new movement. Twenty Palestinians have since been killed during unarmed demonstrations against the construction of the Separation Barrier.

In Ni’ilin, in the dark of night, Israeli soldiers have staged hundreds of military raids and arrests of civilians from the village; hundreds more were injured — forty by live ammunition, and five, including a ten year old, were shot dead. Today, a horrid 25 foot concrete wall stands in Ni’ilin, behind which lie 620 acres of village lands taken for the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements.

Through a five-year protest campaign, another nearby village, Bil’in, has become an international symbol of nonviolent resistance to Israeli occupation, with world leaders from Jimmy Carter to Desmond Tutu visiting to show support. On October 11th, Abdallah Abu Rahmah, one of Bil’in’s most prominent protest organizers, was sentenced by an Israeli military court to twelve months in jail. His crime — leading demonstrations in his village that were very similar to those I led in Budrus.

During Abdallah’s trial, Israel’s military prosecution repeatedly demanded that an ‘example’ be made of him to deter others who might organize civil resistance. The EU, Britain, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have all condemned Abdallah’s incarceration, yet he remains in prison.

Palestinians’ wishes are simple — we want what is ours, our land, with true sovereignty. We want freedom, equality and civil rights — what Martin Luther King, Jr. called in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail “our constitutional and God-given rights.”

But Israel is sending a clear message — even unarmed resistance by ordinary civilians demanding basic rights will be crushed. It is little known that the second intifada began not with guns and suicide bombings against civilians, but rather with protest marches to Israeli military checkpoints inside the occupied West Bank, and with civil disobedience in the tradition of the US civil rights movement. Israel responded by firing over 1.3 million live bullets in one month into crowds of protesters. When ordinary people could no longer afford to risk protesting, small groups turned, in anger and despair, to armed resistance.

Budrus’s struggle showed that civil resistance can bring down walls, both literal and those of the heart, and set an example for a bright future for Israelis and Palestinians in this biblical land. Today Palestinian and Israeli protesters are together confronting Israel’s military occupation in other villages. But this hopeful possibility is now threatened again by Israeli bullets and arrests.

For this future to materialize, those who are outraged by the violence deployed against protesters must demand an end to the injustice. If Americans want to see the example of Budrus continue to spread, individuals, civil society groups and the US government must act to pressure Israel to end its brutal crackdown on civilian protesters.

Israeli forces attack weekly West Bank demonstrations

22 October 2010 | International Solidarity Movement

Nabi Saleh
Nabi Saleh

Today in the village of An-Nabi Salah, the weekly non-violent demonstration took place against the illegal settlement Hamish. Unlike other villages taking part in non-violent resistance, many women, young girls and children participate in the protest. Today, there was a child demonstration. A commemoration also took place in order to remember the massacre during the second Intifada in a village where the children went to school.

The soldiers and border police started out by shooting teargas into the village to prevent people from going to the demonstration. They also entered the village and shot at the child demonstration.

Every Thursday the soldiers walk around the village in preparation for the Friday demonstration. Yesterday they looked for one house which they occupied today, because it’s a good location for watching what’s going on in the village and shoot easily. The people asked the soldiers not to enter the house, and eventually they agreed not to enter. However, a teargas canister was shot into another house, starting a fire. Thankfully, nobody was in the house.

They also shot some gas into a houses in the middle of the village. One woman was made to vomit and could only move her arms and legs in a strange way, . Afterwards, people resumed the demonstration and started singing and shouting slogans against the Israeli occupation. When the demonstrators went back into the village, teenage boys started to throw stones . Teenage boys started a riot and the army proceeded to throw an excessive amount of tear gas. Some people were injured by the gas and had problems with breathing. Three Palestinians were arrested for some hours but then released.

Al Ma’asara

The demonstration held today in Al Ma’asara marked four years of weekly protests as part of the popular struggle against the Israeli occupation, the confiscation of land through construction of settlements and the Apartheid wall. Hundreds of participants from France, Italy, Spain, England and other countries stood alongside Palestinians peacefully protesting Israel’s failure to comply with international law. Also present were Israeli activists from Anarchists Against the Wall, Active Stills and Ta’ayush as well as Luisa Morgantini, former vice President of European Parliament.

The Israeli forces stopped the demonstration long before reaching its destination and immediately made use of sound bombs and tear gas in an attempt to disperse the activists, despite the peaceful nature of the demonstration. An older French activist was injured when a high velocity tear gas canister shot into the air by the Israeli forces struck him in the head.

Two Israeli activists were detained after crossing the line formed by the soldiers. The demonstrators held fast and refused to leave for another hour until the two activists were released.

The residents of Al Ma’asara together with international supporters declared their intentions to continue the struggle to defend their rights.

Bil’in

Bil'in
Bil'in

Three protesters were injured from tear gas inhalation today at the weekly Bil’in demonstration against the Apartheid wall. The march, called for by the Popular Committee Against the Wall in Bil’in, included dozens of Palestinian villagers, alongside Israeli and international solidarity activists.

The participants in the march waved Palestinian flags, and held pictures of prisoners of the popular resistance, whilst chanting slogans condemning the Israeli policies of occupation, settlement and the repression of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. The demonstrators also chanted in condemnation of Israel’s policy of ethnic cleansing Palestinians from Jerusalem, as can be seen in Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah, as well as calling for the siege on Gaza to be lifted.

The Popular Committee Against the Wall in Bil’in also denounced the persecution of its activists, led by Abdullah Abo Rahma and Adeeb Abo Rahma. It considers the trials against them biased as they are defenders of their land which was illegally annexed by the Apartheid wall. The Popular Committee considers the struggle against the wall a legitimate and legal one and calls upon the international community and international human rights organizations to stand next to the leaders and activists of the Popular resistance.

The march headed towards the wall, where the Israeli Occupation Forces were waiting. When protesters attempted to cross to the land behind the wall, which belongs to the villagers of Bi’lin, the Israeli army fired sound bombs, tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets at the crowd. This led to the wounding of three marchers, including 8-year old Lama Abdullah Abo Rahma who suffered from severe difficulty in breathing. Mohammed Shawkat Al-Khateeb,17, and Ahmed Abdel Fattah Bernat ,17, were among the worst affected of dozens of others suffering from tear gas inhalation.

Before the march delegations from Spain, France and Britain met with the members of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and settlement at the headquarters of the International Solidarity Movement in Bil’in. The delegations listened to a detailed explanation by the Popular Committee about the experience in Bil’in of non-violent popular resistance in the past five and a half years and the role of international solidarity in the popular resistance in Bil’in.