By Meron Rappaport
(Article from Ha’aretz, pictures from Reuters (Eliana Aponte & Yannis Behrakis))
More than 20 activists were wounded Friday as Israel Defense Forces troops fired rubber bullets and tear gas grenades at protesters marking three years of struggle against the West Bank separation fence in the West Bank town of Bil’in.
Among the wounded was an American activist.
The IDF spokesman’s office said that one soldier was hurt when a rock was hurled toward him, but that the IDF has no knowledge of wounded activists.
More than 1,000 people attended the milestone demonstration Friday, though the event is a weekly occurrence with several dozen activists gathering in Bil’in every Friday over the last three years to protest the separation barrier that imposes hardship on Palestinians living in the West Bank.
Jonathan Pollack, one of the organizers of the demonstration, said that Friday’s protest came six months after the High Court of Justice ruled on changes in the route of the barrier fence, but yet the state has done nothing to implement the court’s ruling.
Pollack added that when the protesters arrived at the site of the fence, the IDF stationed in the area began shooting rubber bullets and using tear gas grenades against the demonstrators.
An American activist suffered head wounds and was taken to the West Bank city of Ramallah for medical attention.
According to Pollack, some 2,500 people had taken part in the rally, 200 of them Israeli citizens.
The IDF issued a statement estimating the participation in the rally at 1,000 people, and saying that the demonstrators hurled rocks at IDF troops at the scene, and therefore the soldiers used approved methods to disperse the crowd.
On February 15, 2008, around 80 Palestinian, Israeli, and international activists took part in the weekly Friday demonstration in the village of Bi’lin against the illegal Annexation Wall. The Wall cuts off 60% of Bi’lin’s agricultural land and, in a decision by the Israeli Supreme Court, has been ordered taken down and moved back. The entire Wall has been declared illegal by the International Court of Justice.
The demonstration began as usual with internationals, Palestinians, and Israeli activists marching up the narrow village road towards the Wall on the outskirts of the village. Israeli troops were stationed on the far side of the Wall across the no-access roadway running parallel to the Wall. As soon as the demonstrators reached the Wall, the soldiers began to fire rubber-coated steel bullets. One cameraman was injured in the face, and his camera broken. Many of the demonstrators dispersed while several Palestinian youths began to respond to the military violence with stones.
After most of the demonstrators had retreated back to the village roadway, another march forward was organized. This time the demonstrators remained near the main gates where they chanted and displayed the Palestinian flag. There was no response from the soldiers on the far side of the Wall.
It was then discovered that a squad of Israeli soldiers had infiltrated the Wall and were hiding alongside a house above the village roadway. The soldiers were surrounded by the demonstrators and after a brief confrontation, were allowed to withdraw from their position and retreat to their positions on the far side of the Wall. The main group of demonstrators returned along the road to the village, disturbed by volleys of tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets from the soldiers.
By Yaniv Halili, our correspondent in New York
(Translation from Hebrew by Adalah-NY)
February 10, 2008
London and New York: Demonstrations Opposite Lev Leviev’s Jewelry Stores
“Lev Leviev’s diamonds are a crime’s best friends.” This was not the least of that which around 100 demonstrators chanted yesterday outside Lev Leviev’s diamond boutique on elite Madison Avenue in Manhattan.
The demonstration, which was organized by the American chapters of the organizations “Adalah” and “Justice in Palestine,” was designed to strike at the entrance of the Leviev boutique during an important time from a business point of view: Valentine’s Day. The demonstrators have been known to call out to customers, telling them not to buy jewelry for their wives on Valentine’s Day, which will take place on Thursday.
This is the first initiative of this type in New York. Until now, human rights organizations were satisfied with demonstrations against the government of Israel, opposite the Israeli consulate in that city and opposite the UN. Now, two of the groups are taking the protest a step further, in their readiness to cause financial damage to Leviev, the elite jewelry store owned by the Israeli businessman.
The strategy: maintaining a boisterous demonstration outside the boutique and distributing propaganda pamphlets with details chosen by the organizations.
“The crimes that Leviev has carried out are in every place in the world.” Says Issa Mikel, head of the New York chapter of Adalah. He said that the demonstration was not merely focused on “what Leviev has done in the territories.” “Customers of Leviev in New York need to know that he is involved in the construction of four different settlements in the territories including Maale Adumim and Har Homa. People need to know that he is also involved in activity with the corrupt government in Angola and that his company is violating building laws and union labor laws in New York.”
“We want his customers on Madison Avenue to know where Leviev gets his money from and why it is immoral to buy from him.”
Organizers of the demonstration have never worked together with partners across the sea: at the same time as the demonstration in New York yesterday, there was an identical demonstration in London, outside of the Leviev boutique on exclusive Bond Street. The demonstrators in the two countries held identical signs and worked together in order to intensify the boisterous protest.
Kaoru Kishida, a Japanese activist shot near the eye by a rubber-coated steel bullet in Bil’in, has just been operated on in St. John’s Eye Hospital in Jerusalem. The doctors still don’t know if he will regain his eyesight.
Kishida was shot on January 25th, in a non-violent demonstration against the Annexation Wall in the village of Bil’in. When he was shot, three Israeli activists came to his help. While walking him away from the demonstration, they were all shot, one in the leg, one in the behind, and one near the eye. All of them have since recovered.
For more information, contact:
Kaoru Kishida, St. John’s Eye Hospital 02-5828325 (press 7 for English, extension 230 for the male ward)
Mieko Galiko 0546597415
New York, NY, Feb 9, 2008 – Forty-five protesters called on Madison Avenue shoppers to boycott the jewelry store of Israeli billionaire and settlement magnate Lev Leviev this Saturday, the last major shopping day before Valentine’s Day. The protest was the seventh organized by the New York activist group Adalah-NY since Leviev’s store opened in mid-November.
Londoners also joined the campaign to boycott Leviev, with 25 human rights activists picketing outside Leviev’s Old Bond St. store Saturday. The protesters in New York and London oppose Leviev’s construction of Israeli settlements on Occupied Palestinian land in violation of international law, as well as his abuse of marginalized communities in Angola, where he mines diamonds, and in New York City where he develops real estate.
Facing the shop window at LEVIEV New York which was emblazoned with the words “Celebrate Love with Leviev” in pink, the New York protesters carried red, heart-shaped signs saying “Settlements are Heartless,” “Have a Heart Leviev” and “Won’t You be Just.” Protesters sang a parody, vaudeville-style version of “Diamonds Are a Girls Best Friend,” including the lyrics:
“Lev grows bold,
With billions sold,
And Palestine starves while you spend,”
“No matter what they say,
Apartheid’s the endgame,
Lev’s diamonds are a crime’s best friend.”
In an assertion of Palestinian identity in defiance of Israeli efforts to destroy their culture, the Palestine Liberation Dance Troupe performed the Palestinian folkdance dabkeh, including fellahi wedding dances. They danced to traditional Palestinian wedding songs celebrating love including, “Ya Zareef Atool” and “Dalouna.”
The protesters performed a racy parody of “The Dating Game” entitled “The One Date Solution, for those who want to settle”, featuring a contestant named Lev who was wooed by three other contestants – a pro-Israel legal scholar and author of the book “The Case for Ethnic Cleansing” named Alana; the daughter of a repressive African dictator with extensive diamond holdings; and Lev’s spurned ex-Brooklyn real estate partner. In response to a criticism of his human rights record from one contestant, Lev explained, “Lev means never having to say you’re sorry.” But “The Dating Game” ended before Lev was able to choose a date because the audience voted Lev out of New York City and Palestine. Also displayed at the protest was a six foot JDate profile for Leviev which noted, among other things, “In my free time, I enjoy: Exploitation, Profiteering, Union-Busting, and Macrame.”
An Adalah-NY representative tried to deliver a three foot by two foot heart-shaped valentine to the store for Leviev. The valentine featured photos from Palestinian villages like Bil’in and Jayyous where Leviev’s companies are building Israeli settlements, and hand-written messages from protesters like “Stop the Land Theft”, “Jews say no to apartheid,” and “Where’s the love Lev?” However, store staff refused to accept the valentine, saying that Adalah-NY should mail it to Leviev.
In London, 25 demonstrators from Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine, together with support from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Stop the Wall and Jews for Justice for Palestinians held a Valentine’s Day protest outside the jewelry shop Leviev in normally sedate Old Bond Street London, holding placards, and leafleting to curious passers by. The posters highlighted Leviev’s settlement construction in Bil’in and Jayyous, and included the violence of uprooting olive trees and armed soldiers’ assaults against Palestinian farmers.
