21st June 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Nabi Salih, Occupied Palestine
On Friday 21st June 2013, around sixty protesters from the village of Nabi Salih and abroad gathered for the weekly protest. First, passing through the Olive grove, they descended the mountain towards the stolen village spring, but were met with a violent reaction from the Israeli military, who shot large amounts of tear gas and some rubber coated steel bullets directly at unarmed demonstrators. The soldiers then invaded the village on foot and in jeeps, shooting into civilian residential areas and injuring one medic. Fires ignited by Israeli tear gas canisters spread throughout the village.
The ‘tempest’ of tear gas (Photo by ISM)
The demonstration started at around 13.30pm, with people gathering after the afternoon prayer. The group of protestors marched to the top of the mountain and started heading down towards their spring, where the settlers who stole it were visible. Two Israeli army jeeps, around twenty soldiers on foot and a private settler security vehicle were present, blocking access to the Palestinian spring. After about five minutes of the villagers walking peacefully towards the spring, the soldiers at the bottom of the hill began firing multiple tear gas canisters towards them. Soldiers who had invaded the village then began firing multiple rounds of the jeep loaded ‘tempest’ onto the protesters from above – using this method around sixty tear gas canisters were fired in the space of two minutes. Fires spread rapidly across the agricultural land of Nabi Salih, started by the heat of the tar gas canisters.
A soldier with a live ammunition rifle appeared to be directly targeting one Palestinian man who started walking closer to the spring, but he escaped safely before the soldiers had shot at him. This was darkly reminiscent of the death of Rushdi Tamimi, who was killed by an Israeli soldier on the same hill with live ammunition in 2012.
Twenty soldiers guarding the spring (visible on the right) stolen by illegal settlers of Halamish (Photo by ISM)
On the edge of the village, several jeeps and soldiers on foot invaded. They began firing rubber coated steel bullets directly at children and journalists as they moved between houses. One journalist was hit with a steel bullet on his midriff. The soldiers then advanced to the centre of the village, firing directly at protesters in the olive groves; these two instances were breaking the Israeli military’s own rules of engagement, which state that tear gas canisters must be fired at an arc into the air and not straight ahead and that steel bullets should be shot below the waist. One medic was present and was targeted directly by an Israeli soldier who threw a heavy metal sound grenade at his head. A tear gas canister was then shot at his foot, causing injury and burning his trousers. Nabi Salih medics have recently spoken out against the Israeli military targeting them during demonstrations – see report here. Several tear gas canisters were also fired at short range into the petrol station of Nabi Salih, risking igniting the fuel sources there.
The village of Nabi Salih has been demonstrating against the theft of the natural spring and the occupation since December 2009. Israeli forces violently suppress the weekly Friday protests by shooting tear gas canisters, skunk water, sound bombs, rubber coated steel bullets and even live ammunition at protesters. Two people have been killed, Mustafa and Rushdi Tamimi, and many others severely injured. Resident Bassem Tamimi, has spent 17 months in Israeli jails, merely for being a prominent activist at the protests. After more than three years and despite the repression, Nabi Salih continues to fight against the injustices of a brutal military Israeli occupation.
Palestinian medic just after he was hit in the head with a sound grenade (Photo by ISM)
On Friday, June 21, the residents of Kafr Qaddum gathered for the weekly demonstration following the Friday prayer. Many residents were prevented from attending the prayer, as 60 soldiers entered the village before the demonstration even began.
Protesters having much more fun than the Army (Photo by IWPS)
At approximately 11:30, people in the village noticed soldiers entering from the main road closest to Qedumim settlement. They quickly gathered to keep the soldiers away, building defensive stone barricades along the main road. As they faced-off with the army, Israeli soldiers repeatedly pointed their guns at the crowd in order to scare people back to the center of the village.
Nearly one hour later, the soldiers descended down the main road, firing many tear gas canisters and sound bombs at the fleeing crowd. Many people suffered from tear gas inhalation and the surrounding shops and houses also filled up with toxic gas.
At 13:40, the army entered the village again, led by a bulldozer, which cleared away some of the barricades and provided cover for the approaching soldiers, who continued to shoot tear gas at the demonstrators.
At 14:00, one protestor was shot in the back with a plastic-coated steel bullet and was carried away to receive medical attention. Ten minutes later, a camera man and a correspondent for Palestine TV were violently beaten and arrested by the army, showing the Israeli military’s clear disregard for freedom of the press and a journalist’s right to report the news. All of their equipment was confiscated and throw into a nearby field.
Car window shot out by Israeli soldiers (Photo by IWPS)
Demonstrators shouted for the men’s’ release to no avail. Twenty minutes later, two more young men were shot with plastic coated steel bullets, one in the chest and another in the arm and the stomach.
Approaching 15:00, yet another young man was shot in the hand with a plastic-coated steel bullet, severely cutting his fingers. Following his injury, the army raided the village for the last time of the day when nearly 30 foot soldiers chased protesters back to the center of the village, firing tear gas and sound bombs.
The Israeli army presence continued into the early evening and at 16:00, the group of fifty protestors celebrated their daily acts of resistance by eating ice cream, dancing and singing in front of the 30 remaining soldiers and border police.
16th June 2013 | The Electronic Intifada, Joe Catron and Patrick Strickland | Occupied Palestine
Activists demonstrated internationally on Friday as part of efforts to focus attention on Israel’s aggression against Palestinians in Jerusalem.
Global March to Jerusalem participants called for solidarity with political prisoners, an end to the occupation and for national unity. (Dylan Collins)
The international mobilization followed the first Global March to Jerusalem on 30 March — the date marking Land Day, commemorating Israel’s killing of six Palestinian citizens in 1976 — last year.
“Clear vision”
“Gaza deserves all the support we can give,” said Zaher Birawi, Global March to Jerusalem’s international committee member and spokesperson. Birawi arrived in Gaza last week with the aid convoy Miles of Smiles 21’s international delegation for the event. “But it should be in the context of fighting the occupation, with a clear vision toward Jerusalem.”
Birawi, who is a London-based television producer from Asira al-Shamaliya in the West Bank, added, “Gaza alone is not the issue … Jerusalem, and the whole occupation, is the issue.”
While associated with Islamic movements, primarily in Palestine and other Arab countries, the event does not restrict its appeal or participation, Birawi said. Jerusalem, he said, “is not a Palestinian duty only. It is for Palestinians in a political context, maybe. But in a cultural and religious context, Palestinians are not the owners of the city. It is for all people and all religions, and should be protected by the whole world.”
This year’s march came amid rising tensions between Jerusalem Palestinians and Israeli occupation forces. Israeli soldiers and settlers have repeatedly invaded the al-Haram al-Sharif complex, which contains the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque.
And a 4 May attack by Israeli police on worshipers celebrating Holy Saturday outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre prompted a rare public rebuke by the heads of Christian churches in Jerusalem (“A statement regarding police measures on Holy Saturday,” Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, 13 May 2013).
The movement urging boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel has targeted many of the companies that support Israel’s occupation and settlement of Palestinian land in Jerusalem. Some, like the French corporation Veolia, have suffered painful losses as a result. Others, such as the British-Danish security company G4S, face growing campaigns.
In Jerusalem, nearly a hundred Palestinians, accompanied by a handful of international activists, assembled at the Damascus Gate in the Old City following Friday prayers last week.
“One homeland”
Although the demonstration was peaceful, a larget contingent of Israeli police quickly moved to block exits in the Damascus Gate area.
Demonstrators of all ages were draped in Palestinian flags, and chants were led by a group of older women. They called for solidarity with political prisoners, an end to the occupation and for national unity. “One homeland from Gaza to the West Bank,” several chanted.
As the march began, Israeli officers on horseback cut the line in half. Dozens of police in riot gear immediately poured into the area.
Before the march could reach some 50 meters, the police officers attacked several protesters and bystanders alike. A female foreign national was snatched up, handcuffed and stuffed in the back of a police car, though it was not clear if she was part of the demonstration.
In one instance, an Israeli officer pushed a Palestinian photojournalist to the ground. Once he hit the pavement, he was kicked several times by officers until fellow journalists and demonstrators helped lift him up and drag him to safety.
Making no distinctions, officers on horses repeatedly charged in the direction of civilian bystanders, press and Palestinian medical services.
Seventeen-year-old Muath Abu Irshaid was arrested for “taking part in an unlicensed demonstration,” according to Raja Eghbariya of the secular Palestinian nationalist movement Abna al-Balad, which sent a bus of participants to Jerusalem.
In the northern Gaza Strip, a large demonstration was held at the Erez checkpoint in Beit Hanoun at the boundary with Israel. Buses from as far south as Rafah — on Gaza’s border with Egypt — streamed into the protest site after Friday prayers as protestors mingled on a road stretching from a stage near the closed crossing.
“The whole world must learn about the settlements in Jerusalem,” said government worker Mahmoud Kamel, who attended the march with his eight-year-old son Obeida. “This is the first thing. There are no reasons for the policies against civilians in Jerusalem. And they are taking place on land that has been ours since before our grandfathers and grandmothers.”
In Beit Hanoun, members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad held the majority of partisan flags and signs. Members of other factions also participated, albeit in smaller numbers.
“We want peace, freedom and security,” said Mahmoud Rouka, a Palestinian Democratic Union (FIDA) activist. “We want to be able to travel across our own country. The Global March to Jerusalem is a time for Palestinian people here, in the West Bank, in ‘48 [present-day Israel], and in other countries around Palestine to look toward Jerusalem.”
Palestine Liberation Organization member parties, including Fatah, endorsed the Beit Hanoun gathering but their members kept a low profile during it. In the West Bank, Fatah-affiliated media announced and reported local events.
Fear
Organizers suggested that Fatah’s increased participation this year may have stemmed from the success of last year’s march, as well as expectations of large protests inAlexandria and Cairo, where Egypt’s governing Muslim Brotherhood mobilized alongside the al-Asala, al-Nour, and al-Wasat political parties.
Compared to last year, the turnout was notably smaller in Jerusalem. Eghbariya said that “some activists, political parties, and even the Islamic movement [in Israel] declined to participate because of a rumor that the event was organized by Hamas and the fear that Israel would respond harshly.”
Dr. Sarah Marusek, a Global March to Jerusalem international committee member and spokesperson from Brooklyn, New York, who also arrived in Gaza with Miles of Smiles 21, confirmed these concerns. “There was a lot of fear to organize in Jerusalem — it’s very difficult right now, because there have been so many arrests in Jerusalem,” she said. “Many of the student leaders who were working with us before are now in Israeli prison. This political situation has made it hard to mobilize.”
One of the organizers of the West Bank events last year, according to Marusek, wasHassan Karajah, the 28-year-old youth coordinator of the Stop the Wall campaign who was arrested by Israel in January.
Marusek added that smaller numbers across the region stemmed from organizers’ late start planning this year’s events, due to the conflict in Syria.
“Daily aggression”
Tamer Khalefa, a local organizer of the Global March to Jerusalem, said the march would be staged again next year. “It’s important to mark the anniversary not just because of daily aggression at al-Aqsa [mosque] but also because of the general situation in Jerusalem,” he said. “This includes home demolitions, anti-Arab discrimination, land theft and all human rights violations.”
Clashes between protesters and the Israeli military also occurred across the West Bank, particularly in areas near Bethlehem and Ramallah.
In Bilin, a village featured in the acclaimed 5 Broken Cameras documentary film, Palestinian, Israeli and international activists were attacked by Israeli forces who fired rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas and stun grenades near Israel’s wall in the West Bank.
Other Global March to Jerusalem events occurred in Argentina, Canada, Germany, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia, Mauritania, Norway, Pakistan, Russia, Tunisia, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Yemen, according to the march’s organizers.
“Coordinating a global movement is really difficult,” Marusek said. “But it’s really inspiring.”
Contacts established during the 2012 Global March to Jerusalem made it easier to mobilize quickly this year, she said. “This is our second GMJ, so we had already created a structure of networks and relationships. We already had key contacts in place. We have national committees in Palestine, in Gaza and the West Bank.”
“We try to choose people who can work with all the parties” as local coordinators in the Middle East, she said. “It’s an international movement, but it’s also very much Palestinian-led. It can be a struggle working with Europeans and North Americans who are used to working on projects that are more activist-led.”
“We are a peaceful movement, and we expect Israel’s response to be violent,” Marusek said. “But nonviolence is the path we chose.”
Patrick O. Strickland is a freelance journalist whose writing has appeared in Al Jazeera English, Al Akhbar English, The Electronic Intifada, Middle East Monitor, Palestine Monitor, and others. Follow him on Twitter @pstrickland.
16th June 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah Team | Nabi Saleh , Occupied Palestine
M. and A. are two independent paramedics who regularly attend different protests against Israeli occupation of the West Bank. Israeli forces usually respond to Palestinian popular resistance with extreme violence, including the shooting of tear gas canisters, rubber coated steel bullets and live ammunition. Considering that injuries are very common and that the nearest hospital is usually far from the village where the protests are taking place, the presence of medical personnel in these demonstrations is essential and highly appreciated by protesters.
Last Friday, we had the opportunity to talk to M. and A. during the weekly demonstration in Nabi Saleh, which they regularly attend.
International Solidarity Movement: How long have you been volunteering as paramedics? Why did you choose to volunteer?
M: Since 2009. In the beginning I was working in a project with the Danish Red Cross Youth and then I joined the Red Crescent.
A: I have been volunteering since 2004. I do it because I like to help people and this is the way I want to do that.
ISM: You go to a lot of demonstrations as paramedics – why do you think that these protests are important to the community and to Palestine?
M: Well it is better to do something than to do nothing. Also, when there are medics at demonstrations people have more courage to go to the front because they know that we are there to assist them in case something happens.
A: As you know, we live under occupation so people have to move and do something to end it. We have to protest and attend demonstrations anytime and anywhere.
Protesters marching at last Friday demonstration in Nabi Saleh (Photo by Tamimi Press)
ISM: Nabi Saleh demonstration, for example, receives a lot of press coverage. What lesser known demonstrations do you cover and how are these different?
M: Sometimes there are protests at Ofer during the night and no one knows anything about this. This is one of the unknown protests. Also at Qalandiya, there is no press, there are often no medics, only a few people there. I go sometimes to these clashes. A. is always there.
A: Yes, I’m always there, at Ofer, Qalandiya. But no one knows about it. All the media is in Ni’lin, Bil’in, Nabi Saleh – the villages outside Ramallah. Those other places, nobody know about them, especially the media. However, I think the places where there is no media can be good for shabab (Palestinian youths) as they can do whatever they want for the resistance.
M: But it is also good for the soldiers, they can also do whatever they want and no one will film them.
A: This is the difference. But even if there is media, the Israeli soldiers can do whatever they want, no one can stop them, we know that.
ISM: Do you think that the presence of internationals, such as ISMers, makes any difference at demonstrations in Palestine?
M: Actually,there is difference between internationals and ISMers. Some internationals like to be here because they think they are going to liberate this country but they are actually doing nothing, they are just messing up the situation more and more. But some people, like ISMers, do something at least. They try to help in an organised way. But it depends, there are different internationals, some just come to see what is happening, some come to take photos, there are differences. It depends on which international we are talking about.
A: I will say like him, in short way, there are people who come here just to take a photo, like if this was an adventure. They think there is adventure in the West Bank so they come. And there are people who come to support Palestinian cause and popular resistance.
M: Some people think it is a game.
A: Yes, they think there is adventure – they think “let’s go to see it, to try it”.
ISM: There have been some deaths of paramedics. Do you think medics are deliberately targeted at demonstrations?
M: There is a difference between us, medics who work in the field, and people who work in the ambulances. The Israeli forces target a lot of ambulances in Gaza and also the hospital there. But, yes, sometimes they do target us as well. Sometimes they just shoot directly. If there is no media, then they’re just going to do it. They did it at Ofer and also here at Nabi Saleh several times. One time he [pointing at A] got shot – they shot him directly with a tear gas canister. Directly at him. He ducked just in time, so he didn’t get shot in the head.
A: They tried to kill me!
M: Once they targeted me when I was with just a couple of other protesters before the demonstration – because there was no media, and it was before the protest had started they just shot directly at us. So yes, sometimes they do this, yeah. They don’t care.
A: They think we are Palestinian so we have to die. They don’t care if we are medics or not. They target everything.
M: Also at Qalandiya on Nakba Day, they [Israeli forces] started restricting the ambulances from the PMRC and the Red Crescent – they don’t want them to help the shabab (Palestinian youths) because if there are more ambulances, the shabab will just keep going, because they know someone will carry them and help them if they get shot.
Palestinian medics evacuate a Palestinian youth after he was shot by Israeli soldiers during clashes at Ofer prison (Photo by Activestills)
ISM: You told us about the Israeli army aiming at your head – could you tell us about your injuries?
M: Yes, that day I was walking towards him [A] and then they started shooting directly tear gas at his back so I shouted [A] at him, so he turned and ducked and just got two shots in his legs. They [Israeli soldiers] called the ambulance and told them “Yeah, one of your medics got shot.”
A: Yes, they called the driver and asked him “how is the medic? If you want to take him to hospital, you can go through the checkpoint – you can cross it.” But actually they wanted to arrest me. I didn’t go in the ambulance.
M: A bit later, the ambulance took someone else and the soldiers stopped the ambulance for fifteen minutes – checking the ambulance.
A: They were asking the driver “where is the medic?” – the ambulance driver called me and said “they’re looking for you.” They had been targeting me – he shot me from close distance, maybe 40 metres. He saw it – and then they wanted to arrest me. About my injuries? I don’t know about him [M], but me, I have been injured many times. At Nabi Saleh, Ofer, Qalandiya, Bili’in,
M: They also once shot directly at us just over there [pointing] but I went like this [dodging] – so it hit him!
A: I am like a magnet.
ISM: So this is despite the fact that you are wearing medics’ clothes and backpacks – you are easily identified as medics?
M: Yes, it’s obvious that we are medics, so they shouldn’t be shooting us or targeting us, according to international humanitarian law. But they don’t care about this.
A: Actually, with this uniform they are targeting us, we are clear – “there is a medic, we can shoot him directly now, he is clear for us.”
ISM: So you spoke about the ambulance being stopped at the checkpoint and searched, obstructing medical care. In what ways has the Israeli army obstructed your work?
M: Actually the thing with the ambulance has an explanation – they [the Israeli army] are allowed to check ambulances for fifteen minutes – no longer than that. Because in the second intifada there was a suicide bomber inside an ambulance and they stopped it at Jabaand the Israelis brought all the media and filmed it. So since that they are allowed to stop the ambulances and check them for fifteen minutes. That was part of the agreement.
Once in Nabi Saleh they didn’t allow the ambulance to get in after a girl who got shot down the hill with a tear gas canister. For three hours we kept calling the Red Cross, the Red Crescent but nothing happened. In the end they brought another ambulance from Nablus – so they came from the other direction. And there was a guy who got shot with a rubber coated steel bullet from a short distance, grazing the top of his head and leaving him with a three centimetre cut – but he was fine. They [the ambulance crew] told him, if we pick you up and take you to the hospital then they’re going to arrest you. So he decided to stay in Nabi Saleh. After that, when a guy got shot with a dum dum bullet – that’s the only time that they let the ambulance get out. We had to take the other two guys with a service [shared taxi] to Ramallah hospital.
ISM: How many injuries do you usually treat at a demonstration, and what kind of injuries are they typically?
A: That depends! If the soldiers are having a nice day, maybe they will shoot fifteen, sixteen. But if they’re angry, more than this number. Twenty, twenty-five.
M: They use tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets – the worst is the rubber coated steel bullets, because they go randomly and hit many people. When they aim with live bullets they just shoot one guy, but when it’s rubber coated bullets, it’s spread over many. It also depends if you want to count the tear gas inhalation as an injury.
A: You can see, in Nabi Saleh there are maybe five or six injuries in the protest. Maybe more sometimes. But if you look at Ofer, eighteen, nineteen – even one hundred, sometimes even more.
M: Usually they just use tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets. I think in Nabi Saleh there was just one guy who was shot with live ammunition.
A: In Nabi Saleh, no, not just one. Three. One of them was shot on this mountain in his leg with a live bullet. Another in his hand. And Rushdi, who died last year, was shot in his leg on that mountain.
A medic treating an injured protester from rubber coated steel bullet in Nabi Saleh (Photo by Tamimi Press)
ISM: Were there medics there when Rushdi was killed?
M: No, we were not here, because they shot him on Saturday – it wasn’t a demonstration day. In the beginning they shot him with a rubber coated steel bullet so he couldn’t move, and then they shot him with live – just like that.
A: When he was on the ground. The bullet passed through his leg and stopped in his back. He died after five days.
M: In the beginning they didn’t allow him to be taken to hospital – they tried to arrest him.
A: Yes, they tried to arrest him, they were pulling him. When he was shot there were three metres between him and the soldiers and he was on the ground.
ISM: You were present at the demonstration when Mustafa Tamimi was killed – can you tell us a little bit about that?
A: I don’t know what you want exactly…I saw him when he died. Before he got shot, I was on the mountain – a bulldozer was brought into the village, so all the shabab chased the bulldozer and threw stones. The jeep turned around down there [pointing to the road into the village] and came back. There was Mustafa and someone else close to the jeep, throwing stones – they were like four metres away. Then the soldier in the jeep got an order from his commander that said “shoot him.” So he shot directly into his [Mustafa’s] face.
The canister went inside his face like five centimetres – so when I went to him and looked at him, I told everyone nearby “he has died. We can’t do anything for him.” We carried him and put him in a service and sent him to the soldiers at the checkpoint. The commander said “he is fine, but we’ll take him to the hospital now”. But then they kept him like half an hour at the checkpoint, on the ground – they took him out of the service and put him on the ground – after that they took him with a military ambulance to a village further down and then took him in a helicopter to a hospital in forty-eight, near Tel Aviv.
They took him there and the doctor said “his eye is okay” – but his eye was not okay! I saw it out, beside his face. I brought it back to his face. His brother told me, the doctor says he is okay, he will live, we will fix his face – but he’ll have to stay in the hospital four or five months for treatment. But I told them – he has died. When we carried him from the ground, he was dead. But no one believed me you know, because I’m not a doctor. But the next day they believed me, when the hospital said “he is dead.”
They [the Israeli authorities] did that just to stop people reacting – because if they know he is dead, something bad will happen. I think, if the people had known then they would have continued demonstrating and there would have been more people dead after Mustafa. But the soldiers came back and said, “he is okay, don’t worry”. They gave his family and other people from the village permits to go to the hospital to visit him. They never give these to anyone, but they gave five permits to Nabi Saleh that day. They just wanted the people to calm down that day. The next day, they said he was dead and sent him to Ramallah hospital.
14th June 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Nil’in, Occupied Palestine
On Friday, 14 June, around fifteen residents of Nil’in marched toward Israel’s apartheid wall in the latest of it’s regular protests against the systematic confiscation of their land via the wall and five surrounding Israeli colonies.
Graffiti visible on the Apartheid Wall
The wall itself is covered in creative responses to the illegality of the occupation such as “If Batman knew about this you would be in so much trouble” and “Freedom is never given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed,” a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. The residents of Ni’lin continue their march towards the wall, towards the land that was always theirs, and towards their freedom.
The response from the occupation forces today was violent, as they launched clusters of tear gas canisters into the crowd, igniting patches of ground and asphyxiating and blinding demonstrators, some of whom needed medical attention. Two soldiers climbed the wall and began shooting into the crowd, but retreated when stones were thrown at them and before anyone could be hurt. The other protestors erupted in cheers.
One Israeli demonstrator wrote messages in Hebrew to the Israeli soldiers, telling them that they are protecting illegal settlements on stolen land and harming innocent civilians for the benefit of corporations, attaching the messages to Frisbees and empty tear gas canisters. People then catapult them over the wall – a powerful message to soldiers who go about destroying the very land they claim to own.
Citizens of Ni’lin have been protesting against the annexation of their lands since 2004. So far Ni’lin has lost over 50,000 dunums, the majority of its land, due to the settlements and the route of the wall. Saeed Amireh, of the Ni’lin popular committee, believes this is a calculated measure to expel the Palestinians from their land, as many rely on farm land for livelihood.
Youth from Ni’lin with the Apartheid Wall visible in the background
