Bethlehem – Ma’an – Israeli forces arrested several and scuffled with Palestinians while shutting down a cultural festival meant to proclaim attachment to Jerusalem on Thursday.
Organizers, including Prisoners’ Club President Nasser Kaws, were hustled out of the Damascus Gate area of the Old City of Jerusalem and detained by Israeli border police, prompting scuffles at the main entrance into the ancient streets.
Also among those arrested was the secretary-general of Jerusalem’s Fatah movement Omar Ash-Shabi.
Crowds gathered at the site and groups sang traditional wedding songs, gathering in clusters around television cameras stationed on the stairs leading to the gate.
One participant in the event, meant to mark Al-Quds Capital of Arab Culture 2009 which comes to an end at the close of this month, told reporters, “Israel used to say they detain everyone who threatens it with weapons, but look, are these people threatening it? They are just celebrating.”
A performer at the Jerusalem event noted, “Israel is an occupation so it is its job to marginalize Palestinian culture, but we will resist with our willpower. No one can suppress the Palestinian people.”
Intended to be a yearlong event sponsored by the Arab League, Al-Quds Capital of Arab Culture was officially banned by Israel. The festival was marred by arrests and police raids.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem along with the West Bank in 1967 in a move not accepted by the international community.
Israeli forces also broke up a march planned by Palestinian scout troops and closed schools where cultural events were taking place.
Soldiers also surrounded the French Cultural Center and the British Council, where two simultaneous events were planned as the finale of Al-Quds Capital of Arab Culture.
The two events were headed by Rafiq Al-Husseni the head of the Palestinian president’s office and the other by the Ahmad Ar-Ruwedi, the head of the Jerusalem unit in the president’s office.
Israeli officers handed out a written order from the Israeli minister of internal security stating that the cultural activities were prohibited.
Ar-Ruwedi listed the schools that were shut down by Israel: St. George’s School, Freres, At-Tefl Al-Arabi, Az-Zuhour Kindergarten, Dar Al-Awlad, and the Refugees Girls School.
In Nablus, thousands also attended a celebration of Jerusalem as the Capital of Arab Culture, apparently organized by the local branch of Fatah. President Mahmoud Abbas gave opening remarks at the celebration in the northern West Bank city.
Abbas told the demonstration that Jerusalem is the eternal capital of Palestine. “Jerusalem is ours and it will remain ours,” he added.
Also attending the event in Nablus was Sheikh Abdallah Bin Zayid Al-Nahyan, the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates, and a number of Palestinian Authority officials.
A demonstration was held outside Jelemeh prison in Haifa today in protest against the arrest and imprisonment of grassroots activist Wa’el Al Faqeeh Abu As Sabe. Demonstrators planted olive trees and hung Palestinian flags and banners outside the prison gates, calling for the release of Palestinian political prisoners. The night that the army arrested Wa’el Al Faqeeh, they also arrested 8 other grassroot activists from Nablus and surrounding areas.
15km out of Haifa sits the notorious Jelemeh prison, known for its interrogation and ill-treatment of Palestinian political prisoners. International and Israeli activists gathered under grey skies outside the prison yesterday, beating drums and chanting pro-Palestinian slogans. Activists planted three olive trees outside the gates of the prison, in tribute to similar actions organised by Al Faqeeh in numerous West Bank villages. Palestinian flags, along with three large banners bearing hand-painted depictions of Naji Al-Ali’s iconic Handala cartoon of a Palestinian refugee child were hung on the prison’s fence. Protesters were pushed and told repeatedly to leave by Israeli police officers and prison guards, also threatening to confiscate cameras when activists attempted to photograph the events.
How long Israel will hold Al Faqeeh under detention is unknown. At present no charges have been made, police choosing to detain him for “interrogation” purposes until a trial is held.
Al Faqeeh was taken from his home at 1am on 8 December when 50 Israeli soldiers entered his house in the north of Nablus, aiming their weapons at Al Faqeeh and his family. From there he was transferred to Jelemeh prison in Haifa, where he has been under interrogation from Israeli officials. As an active campaigner for human rights and non-violent resistance, Al Faqeeh’s imprisonment as a political prisoner is obvious.
While Al Faqeeh’s active role in non-violent resistance throughout the Nablus region gained him the trust and respect of Palestinian communities, it may well have sealed his fate with Israeli forces, targeting those who speak out against the occupation.
Fatima Mohammed Yassen, aged 49, is a farmer from Bil’in. Despite the crippling Israeli occupation of her village, she continues to work her land, along with her husband, on a daily basis. Jody McIntyre spoke to Im Khamis, as she is known to local villagers, in her home in Bil’in:
Did you have land behind the Wall?
Yes! BeforeIsrael started construction of the Wall in Bil’in, my family had 45 dunams (1 dunam = 1000 square metres) of land, all of them filled with olive trees. My husband’s family had 50 dunams, which were a mixture of olive groves and vegetable patches, as well as another 50 dunams of land which was stolen after 1967 (after the war of this year, Israel began it’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza). When the Israeli army were building the Wall on our land, they stole land from many people, but only on my husband’s land did they steal his olive trees as well… We still go to our land, every day, to plant vegetables and look after the soil, because we will not allow the Israeli government or the settlers to claim that our land is unused. If we don’t go to our land, they will say it is unneeded and confiscate it so that they can expand the settlements, which are already illegally built on our land.
Do the Israeli army make problems when you try to go to your land?
Yes… sometimes they don’t allow us to enter, but me and husband will wait at the gate for one hour, two hours etc. If they don’t let us through we will stay there from the morning until the evening. We won’t go home until they let us go to our land.
The soldiers once told us that it was illegal for us to go to our land and that we should go back home, but I simply replied, “I don’t want to go home, I want to go to look after my land.” Sometimes when our sons come to help us on the land the soldiers beat them or try to arrest them. We’ve had these problems many, many times, but despite this, we will not stop resisting this occupation. We are not afraid.
Do the settlers make problems when you are on your land?
Yes. They came and set fire to a small room the people from Bil’in had built behind the Wall, four times. One of the times, I had just gone to make coffee for my husband – they were watching me and when I left went they went in and made a fire. But every time they damaged the room, we went to fix it again.
How did you feel when you first heard Israel wanted to build the Wall in Bil’in?
Everyone was angry when they heard the news, and sad because we knew it was a ploy to steal our land, so we started to protest against the construction of the Wall. The first time we heard that it was being built, all the people from the village went to our land and said that we would fight against it’s confiscation by the Israeli army. We could see the bulldozers uprooting our trees. For the last five years we have been fighting against the Wall, and for justice, and we will always continue. Do you attend the weekly demonstrations against the Wall in Bil’in?
Yes, of course. All my family go to the demonstrations, me and my husband, our five daughters and our five sons. These demonstrations are our way of non-violently resisting against the Wall, the settlements, and the confiscation of our land. We are not going out there to kill people, we are going to return to work on our land – to take back what they have stolen from us.
Have any of your family been injured at the demonstrations?
All my sons have been injured. The first one to be injured was Helme – he was injured at the very first demonstration we had in Bil’in; they shot him with a tear gas canister in the neck. After a few weeks, he was injured in the leg with the same weapon. A couple of months later he was arrested, becoming the first person to be arrested for our village’s campaign of non-violent resistance. But even whilst in jail they couldn’t crush the rebellious spirit in Helme’s heart – they started a protest against the terrible conditions in the prison, and the soldiers shot Helme in the leg with a rubber-coated steel bullet.
Next, my son Hamde was shot with in the leg, also with a rubber-coated steel bullet, and then Mostafa was shot with a tear gas canister. My youngest son, Mohammed, was just 14 years old at the time, and he was injured three times by rubber-coated steel bullets, twice in the legs and once in buttocks. The last one to be injured was Khamis, my eldest son. He was shot in the head with a high-velocity tear gas canister, a new weapon at the time, and left in a coma. I was very sad when they shot Khamis. So all my sons have been shot in the demonstrations, but we will not stop until we return to our land.
Tell me about the night raids in Bil’in; have they ever invaded your house?
The first night raid was at our house, when they arrested Helme. Our house is very close to the Wall, so if there are any problems at the Wall the army immediately come to our home. Once they came in the day when I out working on my land, broke the doors to my house, beat my daughters and arrested my ten year old nephew. He wasn’t wanted for anything, they just presumed he was. The next time they came was to arrest my eldest son Khamis. As always, it was because he’d dared to non-violently resist against the confiscation of his family’s land. Sometimes they come and don’t arrest anyone, just to harass us, to wake us up in the middle of the night and to intimidate us. My son Hamde goes to photograph the night raids, to show the world what is happening here in Bil’in. Of course I am proud of what he is doing, but it makes me worry about him and I cannot sleep. I’m afraid that a soldier will shoot him or arrest him… I know that he has been beaten many times whilst photographing.
The soldiers are very violent during the night raids, so I worry about him. Another time, whilst Hamde was away, they invaded in the night and stayed in our home for three hours. When I saw all my sons lined up outside, and the soldiers trying to beat them and joking together about when they had shot Khamis in the head, laughing about how he had nearly died in the hospital… when I heard them say this I passed out. When I woke up, I was lying in hospital myself. Because Hamde was abroad, I was scared that they were looking for him and would arrest him at a checkpoint on the way back into the country. Once they invaded the house in the day, and the army commander came over to me and said, “One day, I am going to come here with a bulldozer and destroy your house.” They came two days later and started searching the house, but they didn’t find anything – because we don’t have anything to find! It’s like we can’t sleep in the day or the night now, because of the invasions. All we can do is sit awake.
After all the oppression the people of Bil’in have suffered at the hands of the Israeli Occupation Forces, do you think your campaign of non-violent resistance can continue?
Yes, we will certainly continue. Me and my husband will continue to go to our land every day. We will go until the last moment… I hope that I die on my land.
Do you think you will ever reach the peace you are fighting for?
The Israeli Government don’t believe in this thing called peace. I want there to be peace so that I know my children are safe. We are not violent people, but the Israeli Government steals our land, kills our brothers and arrests our children. Is that their way of making peace?
A demonstration will be held outside Jelemeh Prison in Haifa at 12pm, Monday 14 December 2009, to protest the arrest of prominent grassroots Palestinian activist Wa’el Al Faqeeh Abu As Sabe. Al Faqeeh, renowned throughout the Nablus region for his tireless campaigning and non-violent action against the Israeli occupation, was kidnapped from his home by Israeli Occupation Forces in the night of Tuesday, 8 December.
Al Faqeeh is now being held at Jelemeh Prison in Haifa, Israel. The prison is notorious for its ill-treatment of prisoners, in particular Palestinian political prisoners. Protesters will gather outside the prison at 12pm, Monday 14 December, to protest the persecution and imprisonment of Al Faqeeh. Protesters plan to plant olive trees outside the prison, in celebration of Al Faqeeh’s organisation of numerous tree-planting actions in Palestinian villages close to settlements. In the spirit of Al Faqeeh’s love and support of culture and the arts, demonstrators are encouraged to bring drums, musical instruments, and any other tools to gain attention and ensure our message is heard.
Al Faqeeh was arrested in the early hours of 8 December 2009, when the Israeli army in the force of 200 armed soldiers invaded several districts of Nablus city, refugee camps and a nearby village in a coordinated operation, raiding houses of targeted grassroots activists and arrested nine. Amongst the arrested were four leading members of the popular resistance from Nablus, a fifth activist from Awarta village and four young activists from Al-Ein Refugee Camp:
Wa’el Al Faqeeh Abu As Sabe, 45
Mayasar Itiany, 45
Abdul-Nasser Itiany, 38
Mussa Salama, 47
Nabih Abdul-Aziz Awwas, 47
Mahmud Huleiman
Muhammad Ibrahim Dahbour
Yousef Raja
Rubi Abu Khalifa
Al Faqeeh, 45 years old, worked with various groups in the Nablus region such as the Nablus Youth Union, the Palestinian Cultural Enlightenment Forum and many international groups, supporting and organising Palestinian non-violent struggle. He champions the struggle of Palestinian farmers and villagers, as well as working closely with youth groups in the fields of education, culture and the arts. His co-ordination work of the yearly olive harvest, as well as year-round organisation of demonstrations, fund-raising, community-building and educational events has played an instrumental role in the communities of the region. Favouring grassroots, cross-spectrum peaceful activism to politics, Al Faqeeh has always strived to bridge political divides between Palestinians. He was taken from his home at 1am on 8 December when 50 Israeli soldiers entered his house in the north of Nablus, aiming their weapons at Al Faqeeh and his family.
To get to Jelemeh take busses 175, 188, 180 or 181 from Haifa.
Six Israel Police officers were lightly wounded and 21 left-wing activists were arrested Friday during a demonstration that turned violent in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem.
The demonstrators were protesting the eviction of Palestinian families from their homes.
The protesters on Friday marched from the city center to Sheikh Jarrah, where police said they tried to enter a home that is partly occupied by Jews before being stopped.
Police were instructed to disperse the demonstration, but the protesters refused to leave. Police then used force and tear gas to disperse the crowd.
The entry of the Jews into the home follows a court order ruling in early December that the Arab al-Kurd family, which lives in a portion of the house, had no right to occupy an addition that they had built onto the house. The court rejected the al-Kurd family’s petition seeking to prevent the Jews from moving into the building.
In recent months, three Palestinian families have been evicted from Sheikh Jarrah homes. Activists accuse settlers of trying to take over 28 homes in the neighborhood, which would allow them to create a Jewish community at the heart of the mostly Arab vicinity.
![Israeli soldiers at Damascus Gate, East Jerusalem [MaanImages]](https://palsolidarity.org/wp-content/uploads/legacy/multimedia/2009/12/31156.jpg "31156")
