Tag: Demonstration

Ni’lin continue their struggle against the apartheid wall

On Monday September 8th 2008 approximately 100 Palestinians, Israelis and international solidarity activists marched in protest towards the construction site of the illegal apartheid wall in Ni’lin.


Video By Israel Putermam


Photos courtesy of Activestills

The protest started at 1pm and ended at approximately 4pm. Rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas and sound bombs were shot at the non-violent protesters. In the end of the protest the Israeli army used verbal violence and yelled “Inte Shamuta” (you are a prostitute) to the shocked protesters.

The Israeli army stopped the non violent protesters in the fields before they reached the focus point for the protest, the construction site of the illegal apartheid wall. Israeli forces threatened one of the members of the popular committee with arrest if the protesters did not go back. When the non-violent protesters turned their back to the soldiers in an attempt to avoid an escalation of the violence the unprovoked soldiers started shooting rubber coated steel bullets, tear gas and sound bombs at them.

A group of the protesters managed to reach the construction site in the end of the protest and started building security road blocks out of rocks to prevent the army from coming into the village and tear gas the women and children in their houses. The soldiers shouted “inte shamuta” in their loud speaker to the working protesters in addition to the heavily shooting of tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets.

The annexation of Ni’lin villagers farming land for the illegal apartheid wall and the illegal settlements around Ni’lin leave the villagers with only 10 percent of the land they owned before 1948. In addition to the apartheid wall the plan is to build a tunnel that closes at 7pm and will be able to be closed down extremely easily, leaving the village isolated. Students and villagers who work outside of Ni’lin risk their jobs and education if they stay in Ni’lin and farmers who have lost almost all their land will have to find new ways to earn money for themselves and their families.

Audio Report from Bil’in Demonstration 28th April

bilin crowd

This is Pennie Quinton reporting for IMEMC:


Audio Report from Bil’in 28th April 2006 – mp3

[Update, 1/5/06: this a new version of the audio file – due to technical problems, the last version cut out before the end.]

“On Friday the 28th of April on behalf of the International Middle Eastern Media Centre I traveled to Bil’in to cover the weekly protest and resistance to the Israeli illegal occupation of the Bil’in village’s agricultural lands.

“The young people of Bil’in village had the longest Palestinian flag I have ever seen, it stretched for over 300m’ and the youth held it over their heads as if they were a giant Chinese dragon they carried it up a steep hill to the apartheid wall, a construction of razor wire, manned by soldiers standing on jeeps and humvess with their guns raised. The protest was peaceful with some of the older men chanting for freedom at the army.

“The soldiers then brought down wooden clubs on the men’s heads. This did not deter their protest so the soldiers then fired sound bombs and tear gas. Two men had to be carried away for medical treatment.

“The protestors briefly divided to avoid the gas and sound bombs then returned to sitting in front of the jeeps and humvess this time with a group of Israeli and international protestors.

“The Army again attempted to disperse the protest by firing more gas and sound bombs but once the smoke cleared the protest continued.

“Leaders of the Bi’lin village closed the yellow gate which had been opened to allow the army access to invade Bi’lin if necessary they sat astride it beating out a noise protest with rocks on the metal. Again tear gas and sound bombs were used, this time the protestors dispersed as the youth of the village hiding in the olive orchards began to hurl stones at the soldiers from bandoliers. As I left the demonstration I came across a mother and her young son of six years choking from the effects of the gas, they had been working in the orchards.”

Listen to the report for more…

http://publish.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/04/339096.html

Thousands of olive trees to be planted in land day demonstrations

On Land Day, Thursday March 30, thousands of Palestinians, along with Israeli and International activists will hold a series of large-scale peaceful protests.

Demonstrations against ongoing Israeli land confiscation have been planned in the villages of Beit Sira (Ramallah area), Zabda (Jenin area), Rafat (Salfit area) and Tulkarem city (Tulkarem area) with marches alongside the annexation barrier where local residents will plant 1000’s of olive trees.

Beit Sira. Protest starts at 12.00 at village council. Since 1967 the village has lost 65% of its land to expanding Israeli settlements. As a symbolic act villagers will march carrying a coffin on their shoulders containing olive tree saplings which will be planted in the confiscated land

Rafat. 10.00am. Meeting in front of village school. 3000 Dunams out of a total land area of 3500 has been isolated from the village by the Annexation Barrier. The Israeli army has announced 300 Dunams of the remaining land are a closed military zone

Zabda. 10.00am March starting west of Yaabad. 6000 villagers are cut off from the West Bank behind the annexation barrier. Many more are excluded from their land by gates open for only 2 hours in the early morning and late evening. Out of 1722 farmers that applied for permission to access their own land 150 were granted permits

Jbara checkpoint. Meeting 10.30 am at the bus station in Tulkarm city for a March and demonstration against the wall, land-grab and collective punishment. Tulkarm has been completely closed for more than five moths as a collective punishment. In addition Many villages including Jbara are isolated by the annexation barrier.

For more information contact:
Beit Sira: Maher Ankawi: 0544-397879

Tulkarm: Abdel Karim Dalbah: 0599836783 or 0545474066
Shrif Shahrori : 0599-370445

General: ISM media office 022970824

Budrus Has A Hammer

By Kobi Snitz
Originally published in Zmag

Last afternoon, the Israeli army invaded the village of Budrus during the course of a wedding at which most of the village was present. Many shots were fired, three injuries were suffered and one youth was arrested. Concerned for their friend, a group of people left the village and followed the jeep which took him away. When they were unable to retrieve their friend, the people took out their frustration on the fence which comprises part of the Israeli separation barrier. As a result, about 150 meters of the fence were dismantled and two victory parades were held in the village on the following days. Confidant that world is watching, the villagers addressed themselves to it: “no to the wall” in Hebrew, their trademark “Budrus, we can do it” in English, and in Arabic, they praised the strength of god: “Allah hu akbar” but also sang about their own strength.

This is not the first time that parts of the fence are dismantled. On several occasions, Palestinians supported by Israeli anarchists and by international activists managed to dismantle parts of the fence in meticulously planned actions. However, this time it was different, the young people of Budrus did not wait for Israeli or international activist support or even for the village elders to plan or approve the action. Furthermore, the amount of fencing dismantled goes beyond the symbolic level which often passes for direct action.

Spontaneous action, by which people directly dismantle the structures which oppress them, is often the stuff of songs. Most of the time though, the singing is done at a safe distance from political relevance. For example, American media has romanticized the struggle against legally sanctioned segregation to the point that the singing of its movement songs has become a “hallmark moment”. At the same time, current, relevant struggles are either ignored or demonized. It is probably the case that the words “Palestinian civil rights movement” or “Palestinian non violent demonstration” were never combined on American mainstream media.

Much has been written about the popular resistance to the Israeli separation barrier and about Budrus in particular. Over the last year Budrus has become the most successful example of Palestinian popular resistance, leading some to talk of a renaissance in the popular struggle, reminiscent of the first Intifada. For several reasons, the current demonstrations cannot match the incredible levels of participation in the first Intifada but the current popular intifada has seen important advances. First of all, in several cases concrete gains can be attributed to the resistance and secondly, international and Israeli activists have finally joined Palestinian demonstrations. Indeed those visitors who are able to see the Budrus struggle for what it is, felt lucky to be there to see the people of Budrus tear down the wall. For the few Israelis activists present, it felt like their private version of 1989 at the Brandenburg gate. Back in Tel-Aviv however, it seemed that the celebration will remain a private one. The military censors forbade the Israeli media from mentioning that the fence was dismantled, one mention slipped by in the Saturday evening news and the indymedia carried pictures and reports.

Several months ago, army commanders had informed the village that no more demonstrations would be permitted. In order to make this point the village was essentially put under curfew for two weeks. The people of Budrus are very familiar with the toll that the army can extract, in the course of over 50 demonstrations 212 people were injured from rubber bullets alone in a village of 2000 inhabitants. The number of people hurt from tear gas inhalation is too large to keep track of and last year a, 17 year old, Hussein Mahmoud Hussein Aweideh from Budrus, was shot dead at a demonstration in Beitunia. It is expected that the army will want to retaliate against the village for the latest action with more invasions and perhaps more administrative detentions of village leaders. Another possibility, the one that the Israeli censors must be afraid of is that Budrus will in fact turn out to be Palestine’s Brandenburg gate, the place where the wall began to fall.