Tag: Demonstration

Bil’in village holds press conference and demonstration against construction of the Apartheid Wall

For Immediate Release:

Friday, 26 June 2009: Bil’in village holds press conference and a demonstration against construction of the Apartheid Wall.

Palestinian residents, alongside international and Israeli activists gathered today in Bil’in to demonstrate against the Wall.

Before the demonstration, Naomi Klein, Basel Mansour, and Attorney Wisam Ahmad held a press conference.

Naomi Klein is visiting Palestine on the occasion of the publication of her latest book, the #1 international bestseller, “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism” in Arabic and Hebrew. Klein is an advocate for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign and spoke about her choice to respect the 2005 call for BDS from Palestinian civil society. She explained that the international community can actively support the Palestinian people in their non-violent resistance to the Occupation through BDS.

Explaining her role as a writer, Klein said, “We believe that art and culture are political… Bil’in has integrated art and culture into their resistance. ”

Basel Mansour; a member of Bil’in’s Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements spoke about Bil’in’s ongoing campaign to demonstrate against the theft of it’s land.

“We will continue our non-violent resistance to the confiscation of Bil’in’s land and incorporate using the legal system as a means of attaining justice. We hope that the Canadian court will decide to hear our case and hold Green Park International and Green Mount International accountable for their violation of international law.” – Basel Mansour

Attorney Wisam Ahmad; a program officer for Al Haq and speaker on behalf of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) will talk about Bil’in and the village’s current suit against two Canadian companies.

“The privatization of the settlement industry is an attempt for the Israeli government to hide behind the actions of companies such as Green Park International and Green Mount International. These companies and the Israeli government must be held accountable for violating the Geneva Conventions and Rome Statue.”

After the press conference, Palestinian, Israeli and international demonstrators marched from the village towards the site of the Wall. Chanting slogans against occupation, protesters arrived near the Wall. Israeli forces shot tear-gas at demonstrators, including the use of the cannon (which shoots off many gas canisters at once). Several suffered from heavy tear-gas inhalation and required medical attention from medical personnel.

Bil’in’s Court Case

Bil’in has charged that Green Park International and Green Mount International are illegally constructing residential buildings and other settlement infrastructure on village territory.

The Canadian court will first decide if it has jurisdiction to hear Bil’in’s case.

According to Emily Schaeffer, an Israeli attorney representing the village of Bil’in, both the articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Rome Statute have been incorporated into Canadian federal law under the 2000 Canadian Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Statute, giving Canadian courts jurisdiction to hear Bil’in’s case.

Green Park International and Green Mount International have motioned to dismiss the suit. They claim that Canada is not the appropriate forum in which to try the case.

Bil’in plaintiffs are asking for three things in the lawsuit: a declaration that the companies’ construction is illegal under Canadian and international law; the demolition of the buildings and restoration of the land, and $2 million in punitive damages from the companies.

Bil’in is located 4 kilometers east of the Green Line and is adjacent to Modiin Illit, a large settlement bloc that sits on territory confiscated from Bil’in and several neighboring Palestinian villages. Since 2005, residents of this agricultural community have been organizing a nonviolent campaign against the construction of Israel’s Wall in the West Bank on village land.

Ni’lin residents demonstrate against the Apartheid Wall

19 June 2009

Following a relatively calm demonstration last week, and the unprovoked murder of Aqel Sror on 5 June, demonstrators marched towards the Apartheid fence with apprehension, unsure of what force would meet them. It was eerily quiet as demonstrators managed to reach the wall without the whistle of tear gas flying through the air.

The youths, well organized and prepared, were able to cut several sections of the razor wire fence that makes up this section of the ilegal Apartheid Wall. Contrary to the reaction of the Israeli army in all previous demonstrations which is generally disproportionate and excessive, these actions received no immediate reaction from the Israeli army, which permitted the youths to remove approximately 50 meters of the razor wire and damage several metal posts in the fence.

After perhaps an hour however, four jeeps began to drive back and forth below the area the youth were, provoking them to throw rocks in a symbolic gesture of refusing to be intimated.

After two and a half hours, the Popular Committe declared the end of the action, and all went home.

Palestinians protest closure of Azzoun Atma gate

20 June 2009

Today there was a demonstration, led by the P.P.P., the “People’s Party of Palestine,” at the `Azzoun `Atma gate, in the Qalqilia district. This was the first demonstration in one year. The last demonstration ended with arrests, so the objectives of the demonstration were to maintain peace and to feel out the situation in order to better plan for future protests. It appears that these objectives were fulfilled.

There were approximately fifty people in the demonstration, approximately half Palestinians and half internationals, Israeli activists, and members of the Palestinian, Israeli, and international press. Groups present included EAPPI, IWPS, ISM, Anarchists Against the Wall, as well as others possibly. Internationals maintained silence and documented with cameras and video recorders, while the Palestinians waved flags, displayed banners, and chanted in Arabic.

At the start of the protest, two military jeeps parked in the middle of the gate, which set the limit on the group’s ability to make forward progress. Approximately five or six soldiers stood in front of the jeeps. Shortly after that, before the demonstration had gotten going, three Israeli soldiers occupied the high ground in our rear. Then, two soldiers stood behind the jeeps.

The soldiers were mostly young guys, and it appeared that they didn’t quite know what to do with this group of peaceful protesters. The soldiers used no violence. In fact, at one point, a senior-looking soldier told a member of the press that he could take off his helmet. This might have been done to look good for the press.

The demonstration lasted for approximately one and a half hours, at which time the group peacefully disbanded.

The village of `Azzoun `Atma is approximately 90% surrounded by the separation wall (see Figure 1). There is only one entrance and exit from the village and only residents are allowed to pass through the gate. Beyond the humiliation and injustice of this blatant occupation action, there are regular problems with woman being denied back to their family’s village due to having married names. This is just one example of the plethora of problems created by the separation wall and this closed gate. The purpose of this demonstration was to open the gate to nonresidents. There were approximately 1,000 locals in the last demonstration, one year ago, from surrounding villages. None of the villagers came to the demonstration today, because they were afraid to participate given the Israelis’ severe response to the last demonstration. The organizers will use their observations from this demonstration to decide whether it will be safe for the villagers from the surrounding area to hold regular, weekly Friday demonstrations in the future.

Demonstrators march in Al Ma’asara

19 June 2009

Demonstrators gathered in Al Ma’sara today to protest the construction the wall and the illegal expansion of Israeli settlements.

100 Palestinians, Israelis and internationals marched through the streets carrying a 30-foot long Palestinian flag, chanting against the Wall and demanding an end to the occupation. As the march approached a main thoroughfare, soldiers blocked the road with razor wire and refused to let the demonstrators pass. Protesters gave speeches and shouted at the soldiers, demanding to know why they had blocked their peaceful march. Tensions mounted when a soldier began making menacing gestures at an elderly Palestinian woman, but the situation deescalated without confrontation. At one point the protesters sat down in the shade of the Palestinian flag and began having a picnic. The protest lasted for a little over an hour, and dispersed peacefully.

Prohibit live fire in circumstances that are not life-threatening in the West Bank

B’Tselem

18 June 2009

On Friday, 5 June 2009, ‘Aqel Sror, 35, was killed when a border policeman fired a live, 0.22 inch caliber bullet at his chest during a demonstration held in Ni’lin. Four other demonstrators were injured by 0.22 bullets that day. One of them suffered a severe wound to the spinal cord, which his physicians estimate will leave him permanently paralyzed.

B’Tselem’s investigation indicates that Sror, who was part of a group of youths who were throwing stones at border policemen, was shot while he ran to aid a young man who had been injured a few seconds earlier. The shot was fired by a Border Police sniper, from a distance of 40 to 50 meters away. Sror and the injured person whom he had gone to aid were struck in their torsos. B’Tselem demanded a criminal investigation in the matter.

0.22 bullets are live ammunition that used to be fired from a Ruger rifle. Their impact may be lower, but they do cause injury, at times very serious, and even death. For this reason, the former Judge Advocate General, Maj. Gen. Menachem Finkelstein, ordered that use of these bullets stop. The order was given in 2001 after several children in the Gaza Strip were killed by this ammunition, and after OC Central Command had already prohibited its use. At the time, Ha’aretz quoted an army official who saying that “the mistake was that the Ruger came to be seen as a means to disperse demonstrators, although it was originally intended to be a weapon to all intents and purposes.”

Surprisingly, a few months ago, the army returned to using this ammunition to disperse demonstrators, without giving any explanation for this sudden change in policy and without taking any measures to prevent the expected injury to civilians. Indeed, since then, 0.22 bullets have killed or injured many Palestinians in the West Bank, and also at least one foreigner. In February, ‘Az a-Din al-Jamal, 14, was killed in Hebron when after throwing stones with other youths. B’Tselem also knows of persons who were injured in Ni’lin, Bil’in, Jayyus, Bitunya, and Budrus. Most of the victims were struck in the legs, suffering light to moderate injuries.

Following the renewed use of 0.22 bullets, B’Tselem wrote to the Judge Advocate General in March warning of the potential danger lives in use of this ammunition to disperse demonstrations. The response of Maj. Yehoshua Gortler, of the Judge Advocate General’s Office, was received only in June, after ‘Aqel Sror was killed, and after another letter from B’Tselem.

In his response, Major Gortler states that the rules applying to 0.22 bullets are “comparable, in general, to the the Open-Fire Regulations applying to ‘ordinary’ live ammunition… The IDF does not consider the Ruger rifle a means to disperse demonstrators or persons engaged in public disturbances, and the weapon is not a substitute for means used to deal with public disturbances (such as stun grenades, rubber bullets, and so forth).”

This response does not reflect the reality in the field. B’Tselem’s observations at demonstrations in Ni’lin clearly indicate that security forces have consistently used 0.22 bullets since the end of 2008, and that they see them as an additional means to disperse demonstrators.

First, following the killing of ‘Aqel Sror, the IDF Spokesperson himself stated that soldiers had fired at demonstrators with a Ruger rifle, “which is a means to disperse demonstrators that fires ammunition similar to live ammunition but at low intensity.”

Second, soldiers frequently use 0.22 bullets along with other crowd-dispersal means, such as tear gas and stun grenades. This conduct indicates that soldiers in the field and their commanders see 0.22 bullets as one of the means available to them for dispersing demonstrators.

Third, soldiers often do not have any weapon suited to shooting rubber-coated metal bullets, which are intended for crowd dispersal. Rather, they only have 0.22 bullets. This situation is reflected in the number of demonstrators wounded by these bullets in Ni’lin: since the army renewed use of these bullets, at least 28 demonstrators have been injured.

Fourth, analysis of the repeated use of 0.22 bullets in demonstrations in Ni’lin clearly demonstrates that, in the vast majority of cases, neither soldiers nor other persons were in life-threatening situations, which is the only case in which it is permitted to use live ammunition.

In its letters to the Judge Advocate General, B’Tselem noted that treating 0.22 bullets as a means for dispersing demonstrators has led security forces to see this ammunition as non-lethal and harmless, whose use does not have be restricted. Accordingly, forces have increased use of it and have begun to fire it in non-life-threatening situations.

This incorrect perception is especially dangerous because soldiers are almost never held accountable for illegal use of weapons. The lack of accountability results from the Judge Advocate General’s Office’s policy of not opening Military Police investigations in cases in which Palestinians are killed or wounded, except in rare circumstances in which the operational investigation, made by the same soldiers who caused the injury, raises a suspicion of criminal conduct. This policy has led to very few investigations, and consequently grants impunity to soldiers who breach the law.

B’Tselem demands that the army immediately cease use of 0.22 ammunition in circumstances that are not life-threatening, and that measures be taken against members of the security forces who have opened fire in breach of the regulations, causing death or injury to civilians.