Tag: Demonstration

Dismantling Impunity: Campaign to help Palestinian victims of army abuse

9 February 2011 | Popular Struggle Coordination Committee

The Popular Struggle Coordination Committee is proud to announce a new campaign, the “Dismantling Impunity Fund”. This fund will directly challenge Israel’s culture of impunity surrounding the murder and maiming of Palestinians. The fund will be managed by a committee that will include representatives of Popular Committees and Palestinian human rights organizations.

The Abu Rahmah family will be the fund’s first recipient. The family has lost two of their children, Bassem and Jawaher, to Israeli military violence. Both were murdered while nonviolently protesting Israel’s separation wall, built on their village’s land. The family has filed a civil suit in Israeli courts demanding compensation for Bassem Abu Rahmah’s 2009 murder, in which he was shot in the chest from 40 meters with a high-velocity tear gas canister.

The court is demanding 25,000 shekels ($6,700) as a deposit from the Abu Rahmah family. According to a loophole in Israeli law, Palestinians can be considered “foreigners”. This enables the court to demand an upfront deposit large enough to cover the defense’s legal fees, should the prosecution lose the case. If the family does not submit the money, the court will close the case without hearing it.

Through this loophole, Israel has supported its culture of impunity. Palestinians from the occupied Palestinian territories are effectively prohibited from filing civil suits against Israel, the Israeli army or individual soldiers. Financial resources are needed to combat this loophole and enable Palestinians to seek legal redress.

Bassem Abu Rahmah was shot in the chest with the same type of canister that critically injured US citizen Tristan Anderson one month prior.After conducting an extensive investigation into Abu Rahmah’s death, the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem demanded a criminal investigation be launched. B’Tselem’s findings proved that Abu Rahmah was shot in direct violation of open-fire regulations while acting in a nonviolent manner. Despite video footage and expert testimony to corroborate this, no one has yet been punished or even charged with Bassem’s killing. A civil case is now the option left for the Abu Rahmah family to seek legal redress.

Mohammed Khatib, Coordinator, Popular Struggle Coordination Committee: “From our experience with the Israeli legal system, we do not expect justice from the occupier’s courts. But we do know that a court case brings to light things that the occupation would rather keep in the shadows. By suing, victims of Israeli violence would be extracting both a monetary and political price for the crimes that Israel has committed against them. It is essential to challenge the prevailing culture of impunity, in which Israeli soldiers and settlers murder and maim Palestinians while going unpunished and unquestioned.”

Donate Electronically to the “Dismantling Impunity Fund” by following the link and checking the “Dismantling Impunity Fund” box.

Donate by check: Write checks to “Alliance for Global Justice”, with “CfJS-Dismantling Impunity Fund” in the memo line. Mail checks to:
Alliance for Global Justice
1247 “E” Street,SE
Washington, DC 20003

Nabi Saleh marches with the people of Egypt

6 February 2011 | Popular Struggle Coordination Committee

Despite pounding rain and aggressive repression tactics employed by the army, the village of Nabi Saleh marched Friday in solidarity with the people of Egypt. The demonstration was also in honor of 14 year Nabi Saleh resident Islam Tamimi, who was arrested in a night raid in the village almost three weeks ago and remains in jail.

Nabi Saleh in Tear Gas and Rain Picture Credit: Joseph Dana

Even before the demonstration was slated to begin, the army had taken positions inside the small village of Nabi Saleh, located just west of Ramllah. Soldiers briefly detained three Israeli supporters around 10:30 in the morning inside the village. The activists were taken to the village entrance and told to leave and not return. They were able to enter from a different point and join the demonstration later in the day.

Dozens of Palestinian, international and Israeli activists marched holding posters of 14 year Islam Tamimi, who has been in an Israeli military jail for almost three weeks. The demonstration was also in solidarity with the people of Egypt. Across the West Bank, popular committees held demonstrations in solidarity with Egypt.

The demonstration was attacked with tear gas, the same American made gas used against protesters Egypt and Tunisa, before reaching the main junction of the village. Soldiers then took over the square of the village and forced protesters into the olive grooves surrounding Nabi Saleh. Despite the pounding rain, soldiers maintained positions inside the village until five in the evening.

Two international activists were detained for roughly three hours during the demonstration and no injuries other than tear gas inhalation were reported. The village has been suffering serious repression by the Israeli army over the past month. Weekly night raids, the systemic arrest of children and threaten popular committee leaders has become a mainstay of life in Nabi Saleh. Despite this, the people still resist the Israeli occupation and march in solidarity with the people of Egypt and Tunsia who are fighting for the spirit of freedom.

A melancholy Martin Luther King Day in Bil’in

17 January 2010 | The Huffington Post, Majida Abu Rahmah

My family endured another heartbreaking setback last Tuesday in the case of my husband, Abdallah Abu Rahmah. Although Abdallah’s prison sentence ended November 18th, the Israeli Military Court of Appeals ruled that he should be held for three additional months. My husband has been gone for 13 months already, since he was arrested in the middle of the night last December.

Abdallah was convicted of incitement and organizing demonstrations in our West Bank village, Bil’in. The unarmed weekly demonstrations call for the removal of Israel’s illegal wall, built arbitrarily through our village’s farmland. Over half of our land has been annexed by the wall, mostly for illegal settlement construction. The whole of our lands have not been returned, though we keep demonstrating.

Last Tuesday’s ruling was attended by many European representatives, including German and Spanish heads of consulate in East Jerusalem, and diplomatic representatives from France, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, United Kingdom and the European Commission. Abdallah was called a ‘human rights defender’ by the European Union, and his imprisonment has been harshly condemned by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

After the ruling, Philip Luther of Amnesty International called Abdallah a ‘prisoner of conscience’ stating that he remains in jail “solely for the peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of expression and assembly.”

In 2009, President Obama addressed the Middle-Eastern world in Cairo. “America respects the right of all peaceful and law-abiding voices to be heard around the world,” he said. Despite this sentiment, the United States has done very little to help Abdallah or other Palestinian political prisoners. In response to repeated questions about Abdallah posed by journalists interested in his case, a US State Department spokesperson finally made only a mild statement that failed to criticize his imprisonment.

On this day, we celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr., who spoke out against the state violence used against blacks in American and against the people of Vietnam. A leader who recognized, that the United States must stop funding war abroad and speak out against injustices everywhere. Today, we ask Obama to remember the powerful words spoken by King.

As the people of the United States commemorate the non-violent leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King in a struggle for equality and recognition, they must be reminded of the Palestinian sisters, fathers and husbands held as political prisoners by Israel. The courageous individuals who continually pursue justice, such as Abdallah, keep the spirit of Dr. King alive in villages and cities across the West Bank.

Collective punishment continues as army raids Nabi Saleh

13 January 2011 | Popular Struggle Coordination Committee

From the hours of 12:00 until 03:00 last night, soldiers raided eighteen houses in the village of Nabi Saleh. Soldiers, in full combat equipment, raided the houses in order to photograph people, mostly young men, and check ID cards. No arrests were made. However, the intentions of the army are clear.

The pattern has been used many times in the past. The army raids a house in the middle of the night. Soldiers take a photograph of a 15 or 16 child and match the photograph with ID information. Then, some days later, during the weekly nonviolent demonstration, soldiers go from house to house with a picture book of people and arrest them. It does not matter if the suspected person is in the middle of the demonstration or inside the house watching television.

Once soldiers apprehend the suspect, they create a story that the person was throwing stones or ‘rioting”. This story is usually based on zero evidence and it does not have to be in order to be used in an Israeli military court. The only thing necessary is for a soldier to say that he saw the person throwing stones. No photographic or video evidence is needed. Not even another witness.

Last night’s raid was the second time this week for Nabi Saleh. Bassam Tamimi, one of the Popular Committee leaders of Nabi Saleh, said that the army has raided almost every house in the village this week. Every male between the ages of 12 and 22 have been photographed by the army and their ID numbers have been taken..

Nabi Saleh, a small village west of Ramallah, has engaged in an unarmed demonstration against the confiscation of their land by the neighboring Jewish settlement of Halamish for the past year There have been countless injuries, arrests and collective punishment against the village over the past year as the army has tried to crush the protest. This Friday afternoon, Nabi Saleh will once again march to its land and demand an end to the Israeli occupation.

Protester arrested as soldiers occupy Nabi Saleh

9 January 2011 | Popular Struggle Coordination Committee

Border Police officers arresting Ouday Tamimi. Picture credit: Bilal Tamimi

Dozens of soldiers brought the village of Nabi Saleh to a standstill today in yet another attempt to curb demonstrations in the village. One protester was arrested, and two required medical treatment for their injuries.

Dozens of villagers, joined by Israeli and international supporters took part in the weekly demonstration in the village despite the siege laid on the village by the army, and the unusually large number of soldiers who occupied the village’s streets. Many hiked through the mountains the entire area was declared a closed military zone as early as 9 am and a gate that was installed at the entrance to the village earlier this week was shut closed.

Unlike most weeks, this Friday’s midday prayer, which precedes the demonstration, did not take place in the village’s mosque, but rather on the hill opposing the settlement. As people gathered to pray, soldiers and Border Police officers rushed towards them, ordering them to enter their homes for the duration of the closed military zone order. In response, the protesters staged a sit-in and refused to leave the place.

At the same time, clashes broke inside the village between the armed soldiers who took over the village, and local youth. Throughout the day, soldiers shot rubber-coated bullets at the protesting villagers and their supporters, as well as massive quantities of tear-gas. Tear-gas projectiles were often shot directly at the protesters, causing one injury. At some point, a pregnant women was evacuated to the hospital, after soldiers fired a tear-gas projectile directly into her house. Naji Tamimi, a member of the village’s popular committee, was beaten by a group of Border Police officers as he tried to approach the house in order to evacuate her.

During the day, soldiers randomly took over houses and arrested a seventeen year-old from the street. They have also tried to detained a thirteen year-old boy, but after other demonstrators gathered around him to prevent his arrest, the soldiers decided to not peruse his detention.

At nightfall, on the army’s retreat out of the village, a final barrage of tear-gas was volleyed, as 64 projectiles were simultaneously fired into the village.