Tag: Demonstration - Page 129 - International Solidarity Movement

Four houses raided in military incursion to West Bank villages Bil’in and Ni’ilin

Popular Struggle Coordination Committee

19 December 2009

For immediate release:

The Palestinian villages of Bil’in and Ni’lin have been invaded by the Israeli military in the early hours of Saturday, 19 December 2009. Soldiers entered both villages at 2.30am and raided houses of four families.

In Bil’in, 5 military jeeps carrying about 30 soldiers entered the village and invaded the house of Yassin Yassin. Family members, woken up by the armed soldiers at the dark of night, were forced to leave the house and stand outside in cold and rain. The raid was conducted in order to arrest Yassin Yassin, wanted for his participation in the village’s regular Friday demonstrations against the Wall and settlements. As Yassin was not present in the house at the time of the raid, the soldiers left a note ordering him to attend questioning at the Ofer prison. Soldiers then continued to conduct a search in a second house.

In a similar scenario, the army invaded two houses in Ni’lin, detaining all family members in one room while searching the houses, looking for a resident of the village. The only reason the military had for searching for this young man was his participation in Ni’lin’s weekly demonstrations.

Sasha Solanas, an American solidarity activist, who was sleeping in one of the invaded houses, said: “The army raided two Ni’lin homes in the middle of the night, looking for a villager suspected of participating in the demonstrations. The recent revival of night raids is part of a new campaign to quash unarmed demonstrations in both Ni’lin and Bil’in. The army has used night raids to scare the villagers into abandoning their just cause.”

Owner of second house raided in Bil’in, Wajeeh Burnat, was questioned by the soldiers about used spent tear-gas canisters and bullets, left on the village’s land by the Israeli military, who fire them at demonstrators. In a non-violent act of resistance, residents of the village collect the used munitions at the end of every demonstration, using them to create art and to showcase the violence used against them by the Israeli army. The Israeli military, however, consider such spent munitions illegal and has recently raised suspicions against a member of the Popular Committee for their possession.

Collection of tear gas and shock grenades that have been picked after a demonstration in Bil'in

Art created by Bil'in residents using spent munitions

Mohmmed Khatib, member of the Bil’in Popular Committee said: “The popular struggle is gaining momentum and its growing achievements both in Palestine and world-wide put Israel in a position which makes the military desperate to de-legitimize and stop us. Tonight’s raids are a part of an escalation in Israeli military’s failed attempts to break the spirit of the people of Bil’in and Ni’lin, their popular leadership, and the popular struggle as a whole – aimed at crushing demonstrations against the Apartheid Wall and settlements built on land stolen from both villages.”

Recently, Adv. Gaby Lasky, who represents many of Bil’in’s detainees, was informed by the military prosecution that the army intends to use legal measures as a means of ending the demonstrations. As a part of this strategy, the Israeli military investigators used intimidation techniques to coerce the young boys from the village to testify against the popular leaders. So far, all three detained coordinators of the Bil’in Popular Committee were released for lack of evidence, and, in the case of another member, Mohammed Khatib, the court even found some of the presented evidence to be falsified.

31 residents of Bil’in have been arrested since 23 July 2009, during a night raid and arrest campaign conducted by the Israeli military, targeted at boys accused of throwing stones at the Wall as well as participants and organisers of the weekly demonstrations. Amongst those arrested are Adeeb Abu Rahmah, a leading activist from the village and Abdallah Abu Rahmah, coordinator of the Popular Committee. Adeeb, who has been detained for over five months, is not suspected of committing any violence, but was indicted with a blanket charge of “incitement”, which was very liberally interpreted in this case to include the organizing of grassroots demonstrations.

Israeli army fires rubber-coated steel bullets at demonstrators celebrating the Arab Creativity Award for Bil’in

18 December 2009

This Friday the demonstration organized by the Popular Committee against the Wall was joined by dozens of leaders, members and supporters of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, marking its 42^nd anniversary. As every Friday a number of international and Israeli peace activists and residents of Bil’in and neighboring villages took part in the protest.

After the Friday prayers, a joyful and wet group of demonstrators carried banners condemning the Israeli occupation and its repressive practices while they marched towards the Wall built on Bil’in’s land.

Slogans and speeches called for national unity and emphasized the principles of the Palestinian state. When the demonstrators approached the Wall the Israeli army fired sound bombs and tear-gas grenades and after a while the soldiers proceeded to fire rubber-coated steel bullets.

The Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements just won the “Arab Creativity Award” for 2009, which was presented at a special ceremony held on 10 December in Kuwait. The Popular Committee is proud to receive this award, which is a celebration of their achievements in the 5-year long resistance against the occupation and is committed to continue in their struggle. It comes a year after another prestigious award, Carl von Ossietzky Medal for outstanding service in the realization of basic and human rights, awarded by the board of trustees of the International League for Human Rights in Berlin. Bil’in Popular Committee also received the Yasser Arafat award in 2007, the highest award associated with the late leader Yasser Arafat.

The Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Bil’in also appealed to the international human rights organizations, UN Human Rights Council, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the General Assembly of the United Nations to intensify and co-ordinate their efforts and pressure on Israel in order to release of Abdullah Abu Rahma, coordinator of the Popular Committee, along with other political prisoners arrested during a night raid campaign conducted by the Israeli military over the last 6 months.

Just hours before today’s demonstration, Bil’in was once again invaded by the Israeli army. Five jeeps full of Israeli soldiers and immigration officers entered the village in the early hours of Friday, surrounding and invading a house which is used by international solidarity groups and activists. The soldiers ordered everyone to leave the house, checking the passports and belongings of activists from around the world who came to protest in solidarity with the residents of Bil’in. They declared the whole area a ‘closed military zone’, failing to present documents allowing them to do so.

Twenty seven activists arrested at protest against settler expansion in Sheikh Jarrah

18 December 2009

For immediate release:

A peaceful demonstration of around 300 people, held in solidarity with the evicted Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in East Jerusalem, was violently dispersed by the Israeli police.

Following a violent dispersal of a similar demonstration last week, the police was blocking the roads in Sheikh Jarrah from the early afternoon, in an attempt to prevent protesters from reaching the Palestinian neighbourhood. They set up barriers at the entrance to the area and, before the demonstration even started, arrested an American activist, who was sitting in the back yard of the al-Kurd house, talking to the family.

Later on, twenty six Israeli protesters were arrested, three of them wearing clown costumes. Similarly to last week, the police used a section of the al-Kurd house, currently occupied by settlers, to detain the arrested demonstrators.

Demonstrators reported harsh violence committed by the police during the arrests. Assaf Sharon, one of the protesters, said: “This event represents a legitimate and non-violent protest of Palestinian, international and Israeli activists, against the ongoing campaign of evicting Palestinian families from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah, only for these to be taken over by extremist settlers. The police has been brutally dispersing these peaceful protests for the second week, while the Palestinian families live in constant fear of violent settler attacks.”

Last week, the police arrested 24 demonstrators, including 3 international activists. The arrestees reported ill-treatment by the police, who subjected them to several strip-searches, denied them food and water for prolonged periods of time and held them outside of the police station until late at night, with insufficient protection against the cold conditions. Israeli activists received a condition not allowing them to enter Sheikh Jarrah for 30 days from the judge, while the 3 foreign nationals were released only to be illegally arrested again and taken straight from the courtroom to a deportation facility. They were released early in the morning on Sunday, more than 40 hours after their initial arrest.

The actions of the police, followed by the court decisions, preventing activists from returning to the Palestinian neighbourhood for 30 days, shows their determination to discourage the growing protests against settler take-overs of Palestinian houses in East Jerusalem.

Palestinian men praying outside of the al-Kurd house, occupied by settlers

The Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah have been suffering from violent attacks on the part of settlers who invaded their houses in recent months. Four Palestinian houses have been taken over since November 2008, displacing around 60 persons.

Background

Approximately 475 Palestinian residents living in the Karm Al-Ja’ouni neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, located directly north of the Old City, face imminent eviction from their homes in the manner of the Hannoun and Gawi families, and the al-Kurd family before them. All 28 families are refugees from 1948, mostly from West Jerusalem and Haifa, whose houses in Sheikh Jarrah were built and given to them through a joint project between the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and the Jordanian government in 1956.

So far, settlers took over houses of four Palestinian families, displacing around 60 residents, including 20 children. At present, settlers occupy all these houses and the whole area is patrolled by armed private security 24 hours a day. The evicted Palestinian families, some of whom have been left without suitable alternative accommodation since August, continue to protest against the unlawful eviction from the sidewalk across the street from their homes, facing regular violent attacks from the settlers and harassment from the police.

The Gawi family, for example, had their only shelter, a small tent built near their house, destroyed by the police and all their belongings stolen five times. In addition, the al-Kurd family has been forced to live in an extremely difficult situation, sharing the entrance gate and the backyard of their house with extremist settlers, who occupied a part of the al-Kurd home in December 2009. The settlers subject the Palestinian family to regular violent attacks and harassment, making their life a living hell.

The ultimate goal of the settler organizations is to evict all Palestinians from the area and turn it into a new Jewish settlement and to create a Jewish continuum that will effectively cut off the Old City form the northern Palestinian neighborhoods. On 28 August 2008, Nahalat Shimon International filed a plan to build a series of five and six-story apartment blocks – Town Plan Scheme (TPS) 12705 – in the Jerusalem Local Planning Commission. If TPS 12705 comes to pass, the existing Palestinian houses in this key area would be demolished, about 500 Palestinians would be evicted, and 200 new settler units would be built for a new settlement: Shimon HaTzadik.

Implanting new Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank is illegal under many international laws, including Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The plight of the Gawi, al-Kurd and the Hannoun families is just a small part of Israel’s ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people from East Jerusalem.

Legal background

The eviction orders, issued by Israeli courts, are a result of claims made in 1967 by the Sephardic Community Committee and the Knesseth Yisrael Association (who since sold their claim to the area to Nahalat Shimon) – settler organizations whose aim is to take over the whole area using falsified deeds for the land dating back to 1875. In 1972, these two settler organizations applied to have the land registered in their names with the Israel Lands Administration (ILA). Their claim to ownership was noted in the Land Registry; however, it was never made into an official registry of title. The first Palestinian property in the area was taken over at this time.

The case continued in the courts for another 37 years. Amongst other developments, the first lawyer of the Palestinian residents reached an agreement with the settler organizations in 1982 (without the knowledge or consent of the Palestinian families) in which he recognized the settlers’ ownership in return for granting the families the legal status of protected tenants. This affected 23 families and served as a basis for future court and eviction orders (including the al-Kurd family house take-over in December 2009), despite the immediate appeal filed by the families’ new lawyer. Furthermore, a Palestinian landowner, Suleiman Darwish Hijazi, has legally challenged the settlers’ claims. In 1994 he presented documents certifying his ownership of the land to the courts, including tax receipts from 1927. In addition, the new lawyer of the Palestinian residents located a document, proving the land in Sheikh Jarrah had never been under Jewish ownership. The Israeli courts rejected these documents.

The first eviction orders were issued in 1999 based on the (still disputed) agreement from 1982 and, as a result, two Palestinian families (Hannoun and Gawi) were evicted in February 2002. After the 2006 Israeli Supreme Court finding that the settler committees’ ownership of the lands was uncertain, and the Lands Settlement officer of the court requesting that the ILA remove their names from the Lands Registrar, the Palestinian families returned back to their homes. The courts, however, failed to recognize new evidence presented to them and continued to issue eviction orders based on decisions from 1982 and 1999 respectively. Further evictions followed in November 2008 (Kamel al-Kurd family) and August 2009 (Hannoun and Gawi families for the second time). An uninhabited section of a house belonging to the al-Kurd family was taken over by settlers on 1 December 2009.

The ongoing repression of Palestinian protesters

Jonathan Pollak | Huffington Post

18 December 2009

On a pitch black early December night, seven armored Israeli military jeeps pulled into the driveway of a home in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Dozens of soldiers, armed and possibly very scared, came to arrest someone they were probably told was a dangerous, wanted man – Abdallah Abu Rahmah, a high school teacher at the Latin Patriarchate School and a well-known grassroots organizer in the village of Bil’in.

Every Friday, for the past five years, Abdallah Abu Rahmah has led men, women and children from Bil’in, carrying signs and Palestinian flags, along with their Israeli and international supporters, in civil disobedience and protest marches against the seizure of sixty percent of the village’s land for Israel’s construction of its wall and settlements. Bil’in has become a symbol of civilian resistance to Israel’s occupation for Palestinians and international grassroots.

Abu Rahmah was taken from his bed, his hands bound with tight zip tie cuffs whose marks were still visible a week later, and his eyes blindfolded. A few hours later, as President Obama spoke of “the men and women around the world who have been jailed and beaten in the pursuit of justice” upon receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, Abu Rahmah’s blindfold was removed as he found himself in a military detention center. He was being interrogated about the crime of organizing demonstrations. In occupied Palestinian territories, Abu Rahmah’s case is not unusual – about 8,000 Palestinians currently inhabit Israeli jails on political grounds.

After more than fifteen years of fruitless negotiations, which have done nothing more than allow Israel to further cement its control over the West Bank, even the moderate and mainstream West Bank Palestinian Authority now refuses negotiations with Israel. Despairing over the futility of perpetual negotiations, figures like Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and West Bank Prime Minister Salam Fayyad are openly supporting a resumption of the strategies of the first Palestinian Intifada. This being a grassroots uprising, saying “Those who have to resist are the people […] like in Bil’in and Ni’ilin, where people are injured every day.”

Yet, Israel’s occupation, like any other military operation, speaks only the language of violence and brutality when dealing with Palestinians, whether facing armed militants or unarmed protesters.

Fearing a paradigm shift to grassroots resistance, Israel reacted in the only way it knows – with violence and repression. And what places could better serve as an example than the symbols of contemporary Palestinian popular struggle – Bil’in and the neighboring village of Ni’ilin, villages where weekly demonstrations are held against the Wall, with the support of Israeli and international activists?

Israel’s desire to quash the popular resistance movement is no hidden agenda, nor should it come as a surprise. Recent acts by the Israeli army point directly to this goal.

Over the past six months, 31 Bil’in residents have been arrested, including almost all the members of the Popular Committee that organizes the demonstrations. A similar tactic is being used against protesters in the neighboring village of Ni’ilin, which is losing over half of its land to Israel’s wall and settlements. Over the past eighteen months, 89 Ni’ilin residents have been arrested.

Israeli lawyer Gaby Lasky, who represents many of Bil’in and Ni’ilin’s detainees, was informed by Israel’s military prosecutors that the army had decided to end demonstrations against the Wall, and that it intends to use legal procedures to do so.

The Israeli army also recently resumed the use of 22 caliber sniper fire for dispersing demonstrations, though use of the weapon for crowd control purposes was specifically forbidden in 2001 by the Israeli army’s legal arm. Following the killing of unarmed demonstrator Aqel Srour in Ni’ilin last June, Brigadier General Avichai Mandelblit, the Israeli army’s Judge Advocate General, reiterated the ban on the use of .22 caliber bullets against demonstrators, to no effect. In addition to Srour, since the beginning of 2009, 28 unarmed demonstrators were injured by live ammunition sniper fire in Ni’ilin alone.

Unlike the battlefield, in the realm of public opinion, where political struggles are decided, gun-toting soldiers cannot defeat a civilian uprising. Israel is clearly aware of this fact. The night raids on the villages, detention of leadership and shear brutality on the ground are all a desperate and failing attempt to nip the renewed wave of popular resistance in the bud.

27 arrested, 3 wounded during Sheikh Jarrah protest

18 December 2009

Twenty-six Israeli protesters and one international solidarity activist were arrested and three Palestinian children wounded during a nonviolent demonstration against the Israeli settlement project in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah this Friday.

Over 300 people, Palestinians, internationals and Israelis, attended the weekly vigil. Last week 24 people were arrested during a similar protest that was also violently dispersed by Israeli Occupation Forces.

The apartheid state security forces blocked the roads leading into Sheikh Jarrah in an attempt to prevent protesters from entering the Palestinian neighborhood, but the demonstrators managed to reach the occupied al-Kurd house by splitting into smaller marches and descending on Sheikh Jarrah from the side streets, back alleyways, and rugged landscape behind the neighborhood.

When the march reformed, the demonstrators stood face-to-face against the police. The protesters sat-down, linked arms, and sang anti-occupation chants in Arabic, Hebrew, and English. Police then moved in and began arresting the linked activists one by one. Most of the protesters suffered minor bumps and bruises while being dislodged from the human chain by the police snatch-squads.

One of the activists who joined the demonstration stated: “We are here today and every Friday to demand an end to the occupation of Sheikh Jarrah by the Israeli government and Jewish settlers. We call on the Israeli government to dismantle all settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. We are not using any violence. The only violence here today is the violence the police are using on us.”

Towards the end of the protest a group of nearly 100 settlers arrived to the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and began throwing rocks at the house of a nearby Palestinian family. One 12 year old Palestinian boy was also chased into the street and beaten by settlers. Three Palestinian children were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.