Tag: Digests

1. The Israeli Supreme Court issued an injunction to stop Building illegal outpost on Bil’in land.
2.“Go in Peace”
3. Non violent demonstration stops destruction work in Aboud
4. Tomatoes as a security risk
5. Scare Tactics; Occupation Forces Distribute Intimidating Leaflets in Bil’in
6. Settlers of South Hebron Region Destroy Olive Trees
7. Wall and Demonstrators to stand trial this week
8. Palestinians, Israelis join together in Battle of Bilin

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1. The Israeli Supreme Court issued an injunction to stop Building illegal outpost on Bil’in land.

January 7th, 2006
Another Victory for Palestinian Non violence!
Wednesday January 6th 2006, Attorney Michael Sfard appealed to the Israeli High Court of Justice, on Behalf of “Peace Now” demanding to stop the building in the Matityahu East neighborhood in the settlement Modi’in Illit.

Two days ago, following an extensive coverage in Ha’aretz, the building in Matityahu East was stopped, but yesterday construction there was renewed. As a result of the petition on January 6th, the High Court of Justice issued a temporary injunction banning any further building without permits, in the Matityahu East neighborhood, in Modi’in Illit. None of the buildings under construction in this outpost have legal permits. The warrant also bans bringing more residents, i.e. settlers, to live in the houses in the neighborhood. The Court decided that on 12 January, a hearing on the request for temporary injunctions will take place, but until then, the above mentioned orders will remain in force.

The State Prosecution on Friday told the High Court of Justice it will look into the possibility of opening a criminal investigation pertaining to the illegal construction.

In the petition the Court is asked to order that the houses built illegally in the neighborhood be demolished; and also to cancel the construction plan number 210/8/1, according to which the building in Matityahu East have been going on.
The new petition is based on the material discovered following the petition of the people of Bil’in against the wall. Both petitions were filed by attorney Michael Sfard. Both became possible only thanks to the continued, high-profile popular struggle in the village Bil’in.

The petition was filed against ten bodies party to the illegal construction off the settlement:
Five of them are state authorities that had knowledge of the illegal construction but either aided or did nothing to prevent it, they are:
The Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz,
the military commander of operations in the west Bank,
the Civil Administration High Committee of planning in “Judea and Samaria”,
the commander of the Israeli police in the area
and the Modi’in Elite local council.
In addition to the companies who claim to have bought land, but have yet to provide any proof of ownership:
Green park inc.
and Green Mount inc. two Real estate companies registered in Canada.,
And the Israeli real estate companies:
The fund for liberating land planning and development of settlements inc.
and the “Ein Amy” development company inc.

All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law but outposts like Metiyahu Mizrah are considered illegal even by the Israeli authoraties. The petition asks that the above bodies explain both why the illegal building has occurred with their knowledge and why despite this, nothing has been done to stop the outpost’s illegal construction.

Bil’in has become a symbol of Palestinian nonviolent resistance and of cooperation between Palestinian, Israeli and International activists in a joint struggle for human rights.

The petition refers to a non violent direct action staged by Bil’in residents On December 25th. The villagers employed the tactics used by Israeli settlers for the theft of Palestinian land in a bid to hold onto their land that Israel is attempting to annex via the so called “security” Barrier for Mod’in Elite’s expansion . They established a Palestinian outpost dubbed “Bil’in West” on their own land only hundreds of meters away from the Metityahu Mizrah outpost.

The Palestinian outpost consisted of two trailers and a one room brick structure. Both trailers were removed by The Military within 24 hours of arriving on the land and the brick structure was issued an immediate stop work order by the civil administration.
The petition points out the Israeli authority’s selective law enforcement and that the efforts to remove the Palestinian outpost contrast starkly with the lack of action against the criminal acts being committed in Metityahu Mizrah just across the hill.

Approximately half of Bil’in’s lands are being isolated from the village by the Barrier. The Israeli government argues that the route of the wall in Bil’in was determined purely for security reasons. However, a brief visit to the village shows this to be false.

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2.“Go in Peace”

January 2006

Written by Hannah

I’ve been here for 4 days, and I’ve already been through 2 of the newly opened terminals” that have replaced the “checkpoints” at the entrances to Bethlehem and Ramallah. I don’t know what language to use for these. They seem more like prisons to me than anything else. I asked my host father in Dheisheh camp (Bethlehem) if he’s seen it and he said, “Get me a permit, then I’ll go see it.” Because of course, no matter how badly people are treated at these terminal-prisons, the people who are there are mostly the lucky ones who have permits to go through, or Jerusalem ID cards.

I know it’s clichéd to say that the Wall is turning Palestine into even more of a prison, but this was the first time I’d seen the Wall completely closed around the entrance to Bethlehem. There’s an enormous metal door that can be opened and closed at the whim of the Israeli army, with a huge sign next to it saying in English, Hebrew, and finally Arabic, “Go in peace.” Underneath is written “Israeli Ministry of Tourism.” This is in an area separating Palestinian area from Palestinian area. West Bank on both sides. Entirely controlled by Israel.

And it’s the same at Kalandia. Palestinian areas on either side, entirely controlled by Israel. I don’t know which sign is more offensive, the Bethlehem one or the one at Kalandia that says in three languages “The hope of us all.” Next to this is a drawing of a tree, with the word “security” written in Arabic on the trunk, and each of the branches saying (in Arabic) things like “education,” “culture,”and “prosperity.” “Israeli Ministry of Tourism” was missing from this one, probably because Ramallah does not receive as many tourists as Bethlehem, especially at this time of year.

Passing back through Kalandia from Ramallah to Jerusalem last night was one of the most disturbing checkpoint experiences I’ve had. It was certainly the worst I’ve ever been treated personally. From entering to exiting the “terminal,” you are enclosed between metal doors, turnstyles, and windows, so at each moment you are essentially trapped in a different part until a soldier decides to let you through. Everything is done electronically.
The soldiers sit behind bulletproof glass and bark orders through loudspeakers. No face to face human interaction anymore. The girl (and yes, these soldiers look like girls and boys) barking orders at people last night was particularly unkind, When it came time for me, I placed my things on the newly installed conveyor belt and walked through the metal detector, like I saw the people before me doing. I held up my passport and the soldier ignored me and started yelling at me in Arabic. I couldn’t understand everything she said and I told her that (or tried to, although there seemed to be no mechanism for people to speak to her, only the other way around), and finally she yelled in English, “Put all your things on the belt!” I did so, then walked through, held my passport up, picked up my stuff, and got ready to leave. She said nothing to me, but began to yell at a man in front of me who was holding a small baby. She yelled at him in Hebrew to come back, and then he called me over and said it was because I hadn’t given her my passport, which she hadn’t told me to do.

There are times when I ignore soldiers’ authority because I believe they should have none, but this was not one of those times. I had never been through this contraption before and did not want to hold up the people behind me, but I really didn’t know what I was supposed to do. She began screaming at me in Hebrew when I went back, I told her I didn’t understand, and then she said in Hebrew, “Fine, I’ll speak in English! Give me your passport!” I put the passport down in the tiny hole, she took it, and the man with the baby told me she was saying “Fuck you” and other nice things to me in Hebrew. I got my passport back and she began to bark orders at others again, pressing the magic button to open the next turnstyle for me to exit. I walked out disgusted, with the man and his family watching to make sure I was okay.

I wanted to throw up. Or any number of other things I shouldn’t write here. I don’t know why I keep being surprised. Or maybe that’s not quite it. Maybe it’s just completely disgusted. And angry. I’ve been working in Palestine for just over 2 years, and I’ve seen the street next to Kalandia go from a street to the Wall to the terminal. I was here 5 months ago and it looked so different. And meanwhile I’m working for long-term change and leading groups around the West Bank for American Jewish people to learn about the situation and maybe change some of their understanding and maybe tell some others about that and… what about the here and now? As always, time is on Israel’s side. Palestinians cannot afford to wait. And yet what can they do? I watched all the young Palestinian men joking around inside the terminal as they waited to be yelled at in Hebrew and maybe let through, and I wondered, as I often do here, where all the anger goes.

I hope I never get so used to this that it doesn’t enrage me.

Happy new year to those for whom this is a new year – let’s hope it brings
more justice than the last one.

For Pictures and more on Kalandia terminal see Machsom Watch Roni Hammermann’s report http://www.kibush.co.il/downloads/qalandia.pdf”

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3. Non violent demonstration stops destruction work in Aboud

January 7th, 2006

Friday January 7th- Aboud, Rammalah Area Occupied West Bank

This morning a new checkpoint was formed on the road to Aboud and Israeli soldiers were spread out in the surrounding fields to prevent international and Israelis from joining the demonstration against the theft of Aboud’s land by the annexation barrier.
At 12:30AM one hundred and fifty villagers together with Israeli and international activists who managed to access the village, marched towards a new construction site off the wall near an archeological site.

The Israeli army and the private security managed to block the demonstrators 100 meters from the building site where heavy machinery was being used to dig up the hillside. The demonstrators held a sit-in in front of the soldiers and the work on the barrier was stopped as the machines left the site.
A group of soldiers bypassed the front line of the demonstration and prevented most of the demonstrators from joining the group near the construction site. Soldiers also shot tear gas and sound bombs and attempted to arrest one of the Aboud popular committee against the wall and settlements members. A group of children who had been cut off from the march by the soldiers threw stones in the soldiers direction.

The barrier near Aboud has already been completed on the Green Line 6 kilometers west of the village and now an additional fence on Aboud land close to the village will annex the Bet Arye and Ofarim settlements, established in the eighties on Aboud’s land and more of Aboud’s agricultural land to Israel.
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4. Tomatoes as a security risk

January 7th, 2006

Farmers of Tubas march to the Bardalla checkpoint
Today, at 12: oo AM farmers of the Tubas region will hold their third march to the Bardalla checkpoint. This checkpoint has served as the only venue where Palestinian farmers could sell their produce to Israeli traders for distribution. The fertile agricultural land of the Tubas region has served as the villager’s only source of income for many generations. For the last two months the checkpoint has been closed to the farmers produce and the region faces an agricultural and economic catastrophe.
Ahmed Sawaft Director of PARC (Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees) in Tubas warns: “If this closure continues entire villages and their traditional way of life will be devastated. With no hope of distributing their goods the farmers of Tubas region have not planted their fields for the next season.”

The villages of Bardalla, Ein Al Beda, Cardalla and Wade Al Malachi are in an enclave in the Jordan Valley. The only entry and exit point to this enclave is the Tayaseer checkpoint. In recent months anyone who is not registered on their Israeli-issued I.D. card as from these villages or has a limited-time permit is forbidden to enter by the Israeli military.

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5. Scare Tactics; Occupation Forces Distribute Intimidating Leaflets in Bil’in

January 6th, 2006

Last night in the village of Bil’in, Military vehicles distributed leaflets warning villagers not to participate in today’s non-violent demonstration against the annexation of their land by Israel’s illegal apartheid wall. The leaflets, which were left in the village during the night, call on people not to demonstrate and warn residents:
-don’t follow the inciters
-security forces won’t let anyone hurt the wall
-don’t do things that will hurt your daily routine

Fifteen Bil’in residents are currently in Israeli prisons after being taken from their homes during the night for participating in demonstrations protesting the theft of more than half of the village’s land by the wall.

The people of Bil’in are not deterred by these threats, and plan to protest against the Apartheid policies that they are subjected to. Examples of these racist policies have been particularly blatant in Bil’in recently where Israeli Occupation Forces used violent means to remove two legal dwellings in West Bil’in, while refusing to react to the town-house style condominiums that are being illegally built on Bil’in land.

The caravans received permits from the Bil’in village council and were in place for less than a week before being removed; comparatively, the illegal Israeli outposts have been under construction for over a year.

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6. Settlers of South Hebron Region Destroy Olive Trees
January 6th, 2006

On the morning of Friday, January 6th, the village of Jwaya, near Tuwani in the southern region of the West bank, awoke to find one hundred and twenty of their olive trees cut down. The trees were approximately 30-31 years old and owned by Ibrahim Ahmad Al E’ moor and represent an important part of the livelihood of the village.

This is just one incident in what has been a constant stream of abuse, attacks, and property destruction against the Palestinians by the settlers of the region. Villages like Qawawis, Tuwani and others have been under near constant attack and threat of attack from the settlers. The villagers of Qawawis were evicted from their village for a year, until an Israeli court ruled that villagers had the right to live on their land, but settlers continue to harass them with humiliation and violence. ISM and CPT and other organizations have been maintaining a presence in the villages of the region.

Settlers across the West Bank have used the cutting of olive trees, an important part of the Palestinian economy and culture, to intimidate and frighten villagers, in the interest of driving Palestinians off their land. These actions take place with the tacit support of the Israeli military and police forces, who rarely prevent or punish such attacks.

These latest acts of violence against peaceful farmers in the Hebron Hills come in the wake of Sharon’s most recent hospitalization, and are being overlooked by a media focused elsewhere.

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7. Wall and Demonstrators to stand trial this week

January 8th, 2006

Two very different trials will take place this week that releate to non violence resistance to the Apartheid Wall.

On Tues, January 10th, at 8:30 Judge Alexander In the “Peace Court” in the Russian Compound, will begin hearing witnesses in the case of Mohammed Mansour, a non violent organiser against the wall from Biddu.

Mohammed was initially arrested in June 2004 at a nonviolent demonstration against the Wall in Al Ram. Undercover Israeli agents stormed the crowd and many, including Mohammed and a Palestinian photographer for “Yediot Ahronot, were severely beaten. He was hospitalised and then held for a week before his release on bail together with another three Palestinians. Five Israeli peace activists, also arrested at the demonstration, were released a few hours following their arrest.

Mohammed, a father of five, is being charged with assaulting a police officer, throwing stones and presiding illegally in an “Israeli area.”
The prosecution offered to close the case if Mohammed would agree to stop participating in demonstrations for the next two years and pay a 3,500 shekel fine. “I would prefer to go to jail than pay one shekel to the Occupation. “It is not I, but those that build the wall that are the criminals” said Mohammed.

This Thursday, January 12, at 9:00 am, the Supreme Court will hold a hearing on the request for a temporary injunction against building in the Matityahu East neighborhood in the settlement Modi’in Illit. This neighborhood is being built on the lands of Bil’in west of the barrier, and is the reason for the route of the wall there. The hearing will be held before Judge Ayala Prokachya, hall A.

Last Wednesday, attorney Michael Sfard filed, on behalf of Peace Now, a petition against construction in this new neighborhood. On Friday, the Court issued a temporary injunction forbidding in effect building in the compound and bringing new residents therein.

This Trial is taking place as a result of an ongoing nonviolent campaign led by the villagers of Bil’in. Meanwhile, fifteen nonviolent activists from the village of Bil’in are currently in jail in an attempt to deter the villagers from protesting against the theft of more than half of their land by the wall.

The International Solidarity Movement condemns the Israeli legal system defence of war crimes committed by the Israeli military and settlers and its criminalization of nonviolent protest against the Occupation and Apartheid wall.

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8. Palestinians, Israelis join together in Battle of Bilin
January 7th, 2006

Weekly protest against barrier is rare example of co-operation,
The Globe and Mail

www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20060106/WALL06/TPInternational/TopStories”

By MARK MACKINNON
Friday, January 6, 2006

BILIN, WEST BANK — Nimrod Eshel is shouting out his disgust at the barrier his country is building through the West Bank when the tear gas starts to fly.
The 24-year-old student from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem pants mildly as he dashes through an olive grove to find a safer vantage point. The peaceful protest of a few minutes before is beginning to disintegrate; Palestinian youths, their faces covered with bandanas to protect them from the effects of the gas, hurl stones back at the helmeted Israeli troops, who respond with rubber bullets and more tear gas.
“I think it’s really important for Israelis to see this. It’s really sad what’s going on,” Mr. Eshel said, waving his hand in an arc that included both the ongoing barrier construction and the Israeli dispersal of the protest.
The Battle of Bilin, as the weekly anti-wall protest here in this tiny West Bank community is known, begins every Friday after midday prayers. Several dozen unarmed residents of the town, supplemented by foreign and Israeli peace activists, meet each week outside the local mosque and march together toward the bulldozers and front-end loaders that are preparing the ground for the next growth spurt in the 685-kilometre-long separation barrier.

Each Friday, they’re met by Israeli riot police and an angry dance of protest begins. The activists push forward as far as they can, singing and chanting anti-wall slogans. When they cross an invisible line, the police disperse them with tear gas and batons.
A longer-distance exchange of heated opinions, Palestinian rocks and Israeli rubber bullets then carries on for much of the rest of the afternoon.
Six people were injured, one seriously, in the clash in which Mr. Eshel recently took part. Three were arrested, including two Israelis.

The fight is a desperate one for this West Bank town’s 1,700 residents. When the barrier is completed, it will cleave away some 233 hectares — approximately half this town’s land — and append it to the Israeli side of the barrier, where the settlement of Modiin Ilit is rapidly expanding. It is one of 117 Jewish communities built — illegally, according to the United Nations — on West Bank land.

“According to the Israelis, this is their border. But we will continue to resist it,” said Rateb Abu Rahmeh, a 40-year-old teacher from Bilin. He waved his arm to indicate the mounds of freshly dug earth that are the precedent to a complex system of fortified fencing, motion sensors and security roads designed to keep Palestinians from approaching. “They took 60 per cent of our land. . . . We can’ t have a state with these borders.”

The weekly protest is intriguing in a couple of ways. First, the demonstrators, though few in number, have managed to draw international attention to their cause and slow construction to a snail’s pace. Second, the residents are joined each Friday by Israeli peace activists who are as ready and willing to get tear-gassed for the cause of Bilin as anyone who lives here.

They are only the most vocal of a large minority in Israeli society that is opposed to the barrier, or at least to its construction on the Palestinian side of the 1967 Green Line, Israel’s internationally recognized border with the West Bank. The barrier’s route, which the current Israeli government is believed to see as a prelude to a final border between Israel and a future Palestinian state, puts 8 per cent of the West Bank as well as much of East Jerusalem on the Israeli side, effectively annexing it to Israel.

Mr. Eshel said that like many Israelis, he is in favour of some kind of barrier, which Israelis attribute to halting the wave of Palestinian suicide bombers that have struck in recent years. “I can understand why they put the wall up,” he said. “The biggest question is where you put it.”

It’s a sentiment the Bilin residents share. If the barrier had been built on the Green Line, they say, there would be no riots.

Bilin’s case, requesting that the route be moved closer to the Green Line, is now before Israeli courts and a decision is expected in February. Construction is frozen on about 10 per cent of the barrier’s planned route because of some three dozen domestic court challenges, and the village council is hopeful that a landmark September ruling by Israel’s Supreme Court will help their cause.

In that decision, the court ordered the army to tear down a section of the barrier encircling the Jewish settlement of Alfei Menashe and five Palestinian villages. The court said the barrier can extend into the West Bank, but cannot impose undue hardships on Palestinians.

Though minor, the court successes and the international exposure gained by the weekly demonstrations have recently encouraged the activists to be more brazen in their challenge to the Israeli government.

Last week, a number of Israelis joined Bilin residents in setting up a Palestinian “settlement” next to Modiin Ilit, where the Israeli media has reported that 750 housing units were recently built on West Bank land without permits. Unlike the residents of the Jewish settlement, the Palestinians who moved in next to them were bearing a deed to the land and permission to build from the Bilin village council.

The Israeli army quickly removed the tiny outpost, but not before it made international headlines and drew more attention to Bilin’s cause. Mr. Abu Rahmeh said the village’s Israeli allies had been behind the idea, and even supplied the materials for the outpost’s construction. “They’re very good people. They help us more than anyone,” he said. “Without the Israelis and the other foreigners, we wouldn’t be able to do any of this.”

Friday afternoon, once the demonstration is over, Nir Shalev, an activist with B’Tselem, a well-established Israeli peace group, arrived in Bilin toting maps of the region to help the village council prepare for its day in court. He’s greeted warmly by his Palestinian allies, who clearly value his expertise on how the Israeli justice system works.

It’s a rare example of Israeli-Palestinian co-operation. After five years of bloodshed, hatred and distrust are far more commonly on display between the two sides, and Mr. Shalev acknowledges that most Israelis are quite happy the barrier is being built. Still, he and the other Israelis who have joined the Battle of Bilin are determined to fight on.

“In the long term, this wall will just initiate a third intifada (uprising). You can’t expect people who have their land grabbed to just sit peacefully and accept it. So there will be more terror attacks in Israel and more retaliation by the Israeli army. The whole cycle will continue.”

This is the final instalment of a five-part series by The Globe and Mail’s Middle East correspondent examining Israel’s security barrier, its impact on the lives of Israelis and Palestinians and its implications for the peace process

1. A Non-Violent Victory, January 3rd, 2006
2. Harassment of Political Leaders by the “Only Democracy in the Middle East”, Jan 3rd
3. Beit Iba Checkpoint Occupied by Peace, December 31st, 2005
4. Steadfastness and Solidarity in Bil’in, December 31st, 2005
5. The Tale of Two Outposts- A story of Israeli Apartheid, December 29th, 2005
6. Bil’in: Land Grab thanks to the Wall, December 29th, 2005

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1. A Non-Violent Victory

As a result of the village of Bil’in’s ongoing campaign of non-violent direct action and protest, an unprecedented action was taken today by the Civil Administration in regards to the illegal settlement outpost of Matityahu Mizrah, which is being built on Bil’in’s land. The Civil Administration issued a stop work order, thus sending away the construction workers at the outpost, a rare act by the Civil Administration in regards to settlement construction. Despite this, the illegal work is still being allowed to continue on buildings where tenants have already moved in.
This unusual event follows an investigatory report in Israeli daily “Haaretz,” written recently by Akiva Eldar, The Real Organized Crime and Documents reveal illegal West Bank building project, that can be viewed at:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/665425.html and
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArtVty.jhtml?sw=Akiva+Eldar&itemNo=665422

All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. However, the article exposes that the Israeli Civil Administration has done nothing to stop or restrain the settlement of Mod’iin Illit’s continuing construction and expansion, despite admitting that even by Israeli standards, illegal construction has been taking place on a massive scale.
The article also shows how the Civil Administration serves as a tool for laundering land taken illegally from it’s Palestinian owners, mainly by announcing it to be state land and then transferring it to private hands. Specifically in the case Of Bil’in, attorney Moshe Glick, who is known to be involved with other similar real estate scandals, signed in the stead of the Bil’in village Muhktar, testifying that the land belonging to a resident of Bil’in was paid for by the settlers.
Mr. Glick justified signing in the stead of the Muhktar because “any Jew entering Bil’in will be killed” and because he claimed there was a military order forbidding Israelis from entering Area “B”. Both statements are, of course, totally false, seeing how Israelis legally and safely visit Bil’in (located in Area B) every day. Clearly, there is no way that Mr. Glick could know to whom the land that his clients were interested in belongs, having never been to Bil’in. Yet the Civil Administration has claimed that the supposed land sale was legitimate.
The villagers of Bil’in have been protesting the theft of their land by the annexation barrier, which allows for the expansion of the Mod’iin Illit settlement, and for the last ten months the protests there have become a symbol for the Palestinian non-violent resistance and joint struggle with Israeli and international activists. The route of the wall runs meters from the last houses of Bil’in and thousands of meters away from the last houses in the expanding illegal settlement, thus allowing for further settlement expansion.
In a recent non violent direct action, the people of Bil’in built a Palestinian outpost on their own land across from the settlement, and on the Israeli side of the annexation barrier. The Israeli authorities responded by forcefully removing two caravans and immediately issuing a stop work order for the latest structure that the Palestinians erected. The Palestinian ‘outpost’ has since been under 24 hour surveillance by the Israeli Military in order to insure that no further building takes place. The contrast between the quick concrete action taken to stop Bil’in villagers from building on their own land, with the lack of action taken against the quickly expanding settlement has put the Israeli civil administration in an embarrassing position.
This is a clear example of how the non-violent actions of the villagers and their many supporters have finally forced the Israeli Authorities to take concrete action and curb its illegal settlement expansion in order to save face. But the real victory is yet to be had on Feb 1st 2006, when the Israeli Supreme Court will hear a petition filed by villagers against the route of the wall on their land.

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2. Routine Harassment of Palestinian Political Leaders by the “Only Democracy in the Middle East”
January 3rd, 2006
Today, Tuesday January 3rd 2006 the third, is the official opening day of the election campaign for the Palestinian Legislative Council. In spite of Israel’s reputation as the “only democracy in the middle east,” Palestinian political leaders still face harasement and arrest by the Israeli Police and Military.
At an election rally held by electoral candidate Hannan Ashwari in Occupied East Jerusalem today, Israeli Police demanded that a banner promoting “The Third Way ” be removed. Hannan Ashrawi refused to remove it, so the banner was confiscated by the police and Mrs. Ashrawi’s assistant was arrested. The rally was forcefully dispersed by the Israeli police, and four Jerusalem residents participating in the rally were arrested for waving Palestinian flags (referred to by Ynet as PLO flags), which is still an illegal offense in Occupied East Jerusalem.
On the night of the January 2nd, the Israeli police in occupied east Jerusalem arrested two residents of the city for displaying posters of electoral candidates. The two were released after being interrogated. The Israeli military also prevented Candidate Neda Taweer from Tul Karem from crossing a checkpoint on her way to the site of the annexation Wall at Dir Al Soon.
At noon today, January 3rd, Candidate Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, head of the Independent Palestine coalition list, was arrested in East Jerusalem whilst on a tour of the Old City as part of the his election campaign of the Palestinian Legislative Council. Dr. Barghouthi was approached by six undercover Israeli security agents, arrested, and taken to the Russian Compound jail. He was released at the Al Ram checkpoint three hours later.

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3. Beit Iba Checkpoint Occupied by Peace
December 31st, 2005
For pictures see: https://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2005/12/31/613/
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Palestinian, Israeli and international activists from ISM and IWPS celebrated the new year and their continuous determination to jointly fight the occupation by peacefully taking over Beit Iba checkpoint, north of Nablus. Following a call of local activists from Nablus over one hundred Palestinian, Israeli and international activists, many of them dressed up as clowns and Santa Clauses, marched to the checkpoint from both sides chanting and playing drums and trumpets.
They succeeded to join each other in the middle of the checkpoint and to deliver their demand for freedom and to end the occupation to the Israeli soldiers on the spot. Activists, including one dressed as Santa Claus, handed out chocolates to the Soldiers, calling on them to drop their guns and join the peaceful struggle against the occupation.
Beit Iba is one of several checkpoints isolating the city of Nablus and its 200,000 inhabitants from the surrounding villages and the rest of the West Bank, and is notorious for daily harassment and other abuses faced by Palestinians. As a result of the continuous siege of Nablus since the beginning of the Intifada, all aspects of live in the area are severely interrupted: teachers and students face daily difficulties on their way to school and universities, patients are delayed or stopped on their to hospitals and doctors and farmers are often unable to bring their products to the market. Recently Nablus residents under the age of 35 are denied their right to leave the city, but depending on what the Israeli army calls the ìsecurity situationsî this can also apply to all Nablus residents regardless of their age.
By taking over the checkpoint and crossing it without showing their ID-cards to the soldiers, the activists confirmed the right of all Palestinians for freedom of movement, without being at the mercy of the Israeli military and its illegal occupation. In an attempt to regain control of the checkpoint the soldiers started closing the checkpoint with barbed wire and pushing the activists, separating them from each other, and prevented many activists from Nablus from coming back into the city.
Two Palestinian activists were detained and arrested by the Israeli military; one is a Palestinian citizen of Israel, the other a Palestinian man from the Nablus region. They were released after paying bail in the amount of 2000 shekels and were accused of having assaulted a soldier, despite the fact that the demonstration was peaceful and non-violent.

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4. Steadfastness and Solidarity in Bil’in
December 31st, 2005
By Anna and Henry

For pictures see: https://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2005/12/31/village-of-bilin-continues-its-struggle-against-israeli-apartheid/

On 12.30.05 the establishment of Western Bil’in was celebrated in defiance of Israeli apartheid policies which are demanding its removal. Last week Palestinians from Bil’in, with their Israeli and international supporters, established the Palestinian “outpost” of “West Bil’in” which they are calling “The Center for Joint Struggle.

Palestinians, primarily women, children and whole families, arrived at 8AM at the center, bringing food and water for the day, including a stove for making bread, along with olive oil and zaatar. They were also ploughing their land throughout the day and tending to their olive trees, which have been either destroyed or damaged in the past year due to the construction of the wall.
By 9AM the center and the surrounding land began to fill with media from around the world. The Israeli activists arrived

by 10 PM, and very soon there were close to 50 activists there from groups such as Israeli Anarchists Against the Wall, Gush Shalom, and others

At 11AM Sheikh Tayeer Tammimi, the imam of al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem arrived to Western Bil’in, and soon a he led the mid-day prayer for the village on the Bil’in land which had been destroyed by the process of illegal settlement construction. The village was also joined in the prayer by Palestinian political figure Kaddoura Fares.

At 1200 the parents of Rachel Corrie, along with approximately 40 more internationals came to stand in solidarity with the families of the village of Bil’in. The Corries and many of activists had been in Bethlehem for the past three days attending the Celebrating Non-Violence International Conference, and came to Bil’in in order to wittness the ongoing construction of the illegal Apartheid Wall, as well as the Palestinian-led non-violent movement against it.

While attending the demonstration they spoke with members of the Popular Committee Against the Wall, Sheikh Tayeer Tammimi, and spent the rest of the afternoon with the people of the village, enjoying their hospitality while being able seeing up close the destruction and theft of Bil’in’s land.

On the way to the construction site, the Corries stopped to photograph multiple Caterpillar bulldozers and construction vehicles working on the wall. It was a Caterpillar built D-9 Bulldozer which killed their daughter Rachel Corrie. She was a peace activist with the ISM and United States citizen, and was murdered in the city of Rafah, in the Gaza Strip, on March 16, 2003 while protesting the demolition of a Palestinian home. The D-9 bulldozer is produced by Caterpillar Inc. and sold through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales Program (armored plating is provided by state-owned Israel Military Industries (IMI)).

Throughout the day the Israeli military was present in small groups at the perimeter of Western Bil’in, in groups of 4 to 7 soldiers, numbering from 30 to 40 in total. Despite stopping people a few times during the day, there was very little interference by the Israeli military on this day. This is in contrast to the nearly year-long non-violent struggle of the people of Bil’in which has seen extremely violent treatment by the Israeli Military, including beatings, shooting of rubber-coated metal bullets and live ammunition, and night arrests of boys and young men from the village itself.

The day was a great success for the people of Bil’in, who with their families and friends, were able to join with Israelis and Internationals on their land and defy its ongoing destruction by the juggernaut of Israeli illegal settlement construction. Israeli government efforts to monitor and remove the Palestinian outpost of Western Bil’in contrasts starkly with Israeli government support for the establishment of hundreds of illegal Israeli settlements and outposts throughout the West Bank. The construction of Israel’s wall in Bil’in and other villages is being used as an excuse to annex Palestinian land throughout the West Bank to Israel, in violation of International Law.

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5. The Tale of Two Outposts- A story of Israeli Apartheid
December 29th, 2005

The fallowing is a description of a photograph that you can view at: https://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2005/12/29/the-tale-of-two-outposts/

On the left of the photograph is the simple brick room that Bil’in villagers have built on their land in an area that they are calling “Bil’in west”. On the right of the pictures are the massive apartment building complexs under construction in the Modi’in Elite settlement outpost also known as “Metityahu East”.
The Palestinian structure that houses “the center for Joint struggle” has received a “stop work order” from the Israeli civil administration and is threatened with demolition.
The settlement apartment buildings, despite being built without permits or plans from the Israeli government on land that belongs to the village of Bil’in , have yet to receive such an order.
The Israeli military have placed the Palestinian house under twenty four hour surveillance to insure that no additional construction take place.
By constructing Bil’in west the villagers have effectively Turned the Tables on the Occupation. The people of Bil’in are using the symbols and language employed by Israel for the theft of Palestinian land in a bid to hold onto village land that Israel is attempting to annex for the Wall and settlements.

The Palestinian “outpost”, built on Bil’in’s land with a permit issued by the Bil’in village councile, sits only a few hundred meters away from new Israeli settlement housing units that even the Israeli government views as illegal.
The Center for Joint Struggle in Bil’in West is holding ongoing activities including Guided Tours of Bil’in’s lands with explanations by the village’s Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, meetings between Palestinian, Israeli and international peace activists, screening of video materials about the joint struggle against the annexation barrier and Hanuka candle lighting.

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6. Bil’in: Land Grab thanks to the Wall
December 29th, 2005

Bil’in is a small village located six km east of the green line, west of Ramallah. The village rests on 4,000 dunams (about 1,000 acres) and is home to 1,700 residents, whose livelihood depends on agriculture and work outside the village. Most of the villages land lies between two streams (the Modi’in stream in the south and the Dolev stream in the north); the western tip of the lands of Bil’in are covered with the houses of the Kiryat Sefer section of the Israeli settlement Modi’in Illit.

The barrier Israel is building confiscates about half of the lands of the village. According to the Israeli government, 1,700 dunams of Bil’in’s land will remain west of the wall. In addition, the route itself – whose width is between 50 and 150 meters – takes about 250 dunams. In sum, the wall confiscates from Bil’in at least 1,950 dunams (the actual figure is expected to be even higher). It stretches near the last house of the village, surrounding it from three sides.

A Real Estate Wall under the Guise of Security

The Modi’in Elite settlement outpost is currently under construction
As in other villages, the Israeli government argues that the route of the wall in Bil’in was determined purely for security reasons. However, a brief visit to the village shows this to be false. The fence is mostly down the hill, in a topographically low point, easily allowing shooting above it. It goes six km east of the Green Line and 1.8 km east of the built and populated area of Modi’in Illit. The route crosses two streams, which necessitated complex and very expensive engineering work.

Had the aim of the fence been to defend the residents of Israel, it would have been put along the Green Line. Had its aim been to protect the present residents of Modi’in Illit, it would have been erected in superior topographic conditions near the built and populated area of the settlement.

The only reason for the route chosen is the expansion plans for Modi’in Illit. Right now, two new sections are being built in the settlement: the Matityahu East (also known as Heftsiba and Green Park) area, on 870 dunams of the lands of Bil’in west of the barrier; and the Neot Ha’Pisga area, on 560 dunams belonging mostly to the nearby Palestinian village Kharbata, but also confiscating some land belonging to Bil’in north of the Dolev stream.

In Matityahu East, 3,008 housing units are being built, while in Neot Ha’Pisga, 2,748 flats are planned. According to the plan, the Matityahu East section will reach the route of the fence itself so that its outermost houses will be located meters from the barrier! A master plan prepared by the Israeli Ministry of Housing allocates the remaining 600 dunams of the lands of Bil’in west of the fence, between Matityahu East and the Dolev stream, for another new section in Modi’in Illit, in which 1,200 housing units will be built.

Hence, the route of the wall in Bil’in was determined in light of the various construction plans of the settlement Modi’in Illit. Recently, the Israeli Government admitted, in response to a High Court of Justice petition, that “the route of the fence on the lands of Bil’in was designed, among others, to safeguard two new neighborhoods of Modi’in Illit, one which is already in advanced building stages… and the other… where building, on the western side, already began.” In other words, the route of the fence was designed to protect the future settlers who will live in the future areas to be built on the confiscated lands of Bil’in west of the barrier.

From a Small Settlement into a City

The story of Modi’in Illit started in 1992, when the small ultra-orthodox settlement Kiryat Sefer was established on the lands of the villages Kharbata, Deir Qaddis and Ni’lin, as well as on the western tip of the lands of Bil’in. In 1996 the name of the settlement was changed into Modi’in Illit, and it began to expand. At present Modi’in Illit is a 5,800-dunam (more than 1450 acres) settlements, all located east of the Green Line.
According to the master plan prepared by the Ministry of Housing, 150,000 settlers will live in the area by 2020 – most of them in Modi’in Illit itself. The Central Bureau of Statistics reports that in September 2005, 29,300 people lived in Modi’in Illit – 12.7 percent more than in 2004. Modi’in Illit is the second largest settlement (with respect to its population) in the West Bank, following Ma’ale Edomim, and will soon become the most densely populated settlement.

Unlike most settlements, Modi’in Illit is not an ideological one. Its ultra-orthodox residents came here only since the Israeli government offered them cheap housing. In many respects, the residents of this settlement are a victim of the policy of the government, which decided to bring them here and to inevitably create a conflict between them and the Palestinian land owners. This process was greatly enhanced recently, with the expansion eastward of Modi’in Illit, outside the boundaries of its built area. This expansion also violates an explicit commitment, given by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to U.S. President George Bush on December 2003. According to that agreement all building outside the already built-up areas of the settlements will cease.
Matityahu East: the Largest Illegal Outpost in the Territories

In the midst of procedures at the High Court of Justice, it was revealed that the Matityahu East section – the main reason for the route of the fence in Bil’in – is being constructed in violation of Israeli planning laws and without legal permits. In addition, the section violates international law in general, and the Fourth Geneva Convention that forbids the settlement of the occupying population in the occupied areas in particular.

The Matityahu East section is being built according to plan number 210/8/1, which was not approved yet by the Israeli planning authorities in the West Bank. The section has an approved building plan from 1999, plan number 210/8. However, the later allows only 1,532 housing units to be built (compared with 3,008 according to the new plan), and the division of lands therein (public areas, streets etc) is different than in the new plan. In reality, the construction in Matityahu East is being done according to plan number 210/8/1, which has no validity under Israeli law. According to the Israeli government, 750 housing units have already been illegally built in Matityahu East.

A letter written by the Comptroller of the Local Council Modi’in Illit in March 14, 2005 shows that the Comptroller sent warnings against the illegal building in Matityahu East already in January 2004, to both Council members and the Ministry of the Interior – but nothing was done to stop it. Following the complaints of the Comptroller, the local Council decided to fire him rather than address the violations.

While the authorities allow large-scale illegal building to continue in Matityahu East, the Civil Administration was quick to issue a warrant against building in the Bil’in Center for the Joint Struggle for Peace – a small building, sized seven square meters, which the residents of Bil’in and Israeli peace activists erected near Matityahu East on December 25th, 2005. Just a few hours after the walls of the building were completed, a warrant was delivered to the people of Bil’in forbidding any further building there and summoning them to a hearing at a planning committee of the Civil Administration. In addition, the army forcefully evacuated two caravans put in the place – one on December 22nd and the second on December 25th. This is a clear example of double standard in the enforcement of the law in the West Bank.

The High Court Petition

The issue of the fence in Bil’in is now in the High Court of Justice, where a hearing on the subject is to be held on February 1st, 2006. A petition against the fence was issued in September, by attorney Michael Sfard; it includes an extensive discussion of the future building plans of Modi’in Illit, some of which were only recently exposed.
In the petition, attorney Sfard claims that the route of the fence in Bil’in was not determined by security considerations, but rather by the interests of the settlement and of real estate companies. The route carefully follows the existing and future construction plans of Modi’in Illit, and was designed to allow unscrupulous real estate developers operating in the settlement (among them the companies Heftsiba and Green Park) to collect huge profits, on the backs of the people of Bil’in, whose lands are being stolen from them before their very eyes.

1. A Conference Against the Wall in Bil’in
2. “Love is possible in spite of all the evil we experience”
3. IOF Continues Harassing Jayyous Villagers
4. Downloadable film on The Wall
5. Who’s Afraid of Human Rights Observers?
6. Farmers march for their lives
7. From the Israeli Press: Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem slams West Bank separation fence

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1. A Conference Against the Wall in Bil’in
An invitation from Bil’in’s Popular Committee Against the Wall and settlements

[BIL’IN , West Bank] In our village of Bil’in, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, we are living an important but overlooked story of the occupation. Though Israeli forces withdrew from Gaza earlier this year, they are continuing to expand their West Bank settlements.

On our village’s land, Israel is building one new settlement and expanding five others. These settlements will form a city called Modiin Illit, with tens of thousands of settlers, many times the number that were evacuated from Gaza. These settlements consume most of our area’s water. Throughout the West Bank, settlement and wall construction, arrests, killing and occupation continue.

Over one year ago the International Court of Justice handed down an advisory ruling that Israel’s construction of a wall on Palestinian land violated international law. Today, Palestinians in villages like ours are struggling to implement that decision and stop the illegal construction using nonviolence. Unfortunately the international community has done little to support us.

Our village is being strangled by Israel’s wall. Though Bil’in sits two and a half miles east of the Green Line, Israel is taking roughly 60 percent of our 1,000 acres of land in order to annex the six settlements and build the wall around them. This land is also money to us – we work it. Bil’in’s 1,600 residents depend on farming and harvesting olives for our livelihood. The wall will turn Bil’in into an open-air prison, like Gaza.

After Israeli courts refused our appeals to prevent wall construction, we, along with Israelis and international citizens from around the world, began peacefully protesting the confiscation of our land. We chose to resist nonviolently because we are peace-loving people who are victims of the occupation. We have opened our homes to the Israelis who have joined us. They have become our partners in struggle. Together we send a strong message that we can coexist in peace and security. We welcome anyone who comes to us as a guest and who works for peace and justice for both peoples, but we will resist anyone who comes as an occupier.

We have held more than 90 peaceful demonstrations since February. We learned from the experience and advice of villages such as Budrus and Biddu, who resisted the wall nonviolently. Palestinians from other areas now call people from Bil’in “Palestinian Gandhis.”

Our demonstrations aim to stop the bulldozers destroying our land, and to send a message about the wall’s impact. We’ve chained ourselves to olive trees that were being bulldozed for the wall to show that taking the life of our trees takes the life of our village. We’ve distributed letters asking the soldiers to think before they shoot at us, explaining that we are not against the Israeli people, we are against the building of the wall on our land. We refuse to be strangled by the wall in silence. In a famous Palestinian short story by Ghassan Kanafani, “Men in the Sun,” Palestinian workers suffocate inside a tanker truck. Upon discovering them, the driver screams, “Why didn’t you bang on the sides of the tank?” In Bil’in, we are banging, we are screaming.

In the face of our nonviolent resistance, Israeli soldiers have attacked our peaceful protests with teargas, clubs, rubber-coated steel bullets and live ammunition. They have injured over 400 villagers. They invade the village at night, entering homes, pulling families out and arresting people.

But a year after the International Court of Justice’s decision, wall construction Palestinian land continues. Behind the smoke screen of the Gaza withdrawal, the real story is Israel’s attempt to take control of the West Bank by building the illegal wall and settlements that threaten to destroy dozens of villages like Bil’in and any hope for peace.

Bil’in is banging, Bil’in is screaming. Please stand with us so that we can achieve our freedom by peaceful and nonviolent means.

We invite you to participate with us in an international conference that we will hold in Bil’in to address the occupation and build nonviolent resistance to it, February 20 & 21, 2006.

For more information on the conference, please write to:
bel3en@yahoo.com

Please forward this invitation widely!

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2. “Love is possible in spite of all the evil we experience”

11 December 2005

For pictures see:
https://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2005/12/13/latin-patriarch-of-jerusalem-slams-west-bank-separation-fence/

Despite an Israeli checkpoint that prevented journalists from accessing the village, a peaceful march of one thousand people, Christians and Muslims, went forward on Sunday in the West Bank Village Aboud. The march was stopped by Israeli soldiers three hundreds meters from bulldozers digging up Aboud’s land to construct the annexation barrier.

Latin Patriarch Michael Sabbah led a short worship and then planted an olive tree, symbolically protesting the destruction of hundreds of trees by the construction of the annexation barrier. The route of the wall on Aboud’s land will de facto annex Bet Arye and Ofarin settlements together with 4000 Dunams (around 1000 Acres) of Aboud’s agricultural land to Israel. The march was joined by Israeli and international activists .

Patriarch Michel Sabbah addressed the crowd and the Israeli soldiers guarding the bulldozers:

“With our faith and love, we demand the removal of this Wall. We affirm that it is a mistake and an attack against our lands and our properties, a mistake and an attack against friendly relationship among the two people. (…) In your faith and your love you shall find a guide in your political actions and in resistance against every oppression. You may say that love is an unknown language to politics, but love is possible in spite of all the evil we experience, we shall make it possible!”

After the Patriarch’s departure, one hundred people stood in front of the soldiers singing slogans against the Wall. Israeli activist Jonothan Polack was arrested for trying to plant an olive tree.

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3. IOF Continues Harassing Jayyous Villagers

By ISM local contact

Today, 11th December 2005, at 2:30am, the IOF troops invaded the west bank village of Jayyous. They searched houses and arrested the Vice President of the Jayyous municipality, Mr. Issam Muhammad Hassan Shbaita.

Mr. Shbaita is known as a local human rights activist for his work that coordinated with international organizations that helped to resist the Israeli occupation. More recently, Mr. Shbaita was known for his efforts in joining the international calls for the release of the four kidnapped Christian Peacemaker Teams activists in Iraq. He has been coordinating with local people and the Popular Committees Against the Wall and Settlements to send a strong call to release the CPT activists.

Jayyous village has suffered a lot from the construction of the Israeli apartheid wall. Lately the Israeli government has started building a new settlement on the confiscated lands. This is not the first time the village has been invaded by the occupation forces.

The people of Jayyous have been a great example of popular resistance. They say that these actions of the Israeli occupation force will not stop their resistance.

www.jayyousonline.org

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4. Downloadable film on The Wall

In November 2002 the first section of the Israeli Aparthied Wall on Palestinian territory in the West Bank was under construction in the Qalqilya district. This short film looks at how the Wall will affect Palestinian communities and what locals and internationals were doing to resist the construction of the wall.

Filmed by a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement.

You can find the film at the Internet Archive :

http://www.archive.org/details/thewall_nov02

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5. Who’s Afraid of Human Rights Observers?

Israeli soldiers violate court order and close off Palestinian homes, assault Human Rights Workers, confiscate cameras and destroy film in Tel Rumeida, Hebron

A human rights worker was filming the Israeli army’s violation of a recent Israeli court order to open a pathway to Palestinian homes at around 12:30 p.m., Wednesday, December 14, near the illegal Israeli settlement of Tel Rumeida. Israeli Occupation Forces recently installed a coil of razor wire, blocking a path that leads to Palestinian families’ homes located just below the settlement. The razor wire violates a recent court order saying that Palestinians in the area are allowed to use the path at all times.

The Israeli military commander at the scene pushed the human rights worker and tried to take her camera. Upon witnessing the scene, another human rights worker started filming and the IOF commander approached him, pushed him to the ground and started dragging him along the street, holding the strap of his bag and video camera until he managed to take the camera. A few minutes later the woman who was initially pushed was once again attacked by three soldiers who surrounded her, pushed her to the ground as she was screaming in fear, and took her video camera. In the commotion a third human rights worker was assaulted in a similar way by another soldier; he was pushed to the ground and the soldier ripped his camera out of his hands. Two other human rights workers were assaulted during this time.

The cameras were returned at 3:15 p.m. with the film missing from the still camera and the tapes in the two video cameras fully taped over by the military.

The International Solidarity Movement, together with the Tel Rumeida Project, provides an international presence in Tel Rumeida to support the Palestinian families in the area in their daily struggle to lead a normal life next door to the violent settlers of Tel Rumeida and Beit Hadassah. Among other activities, these human rights workers accompany Palestinian children to school on a daily basis to help prevent frequent attacks on the children and their teachers by settlers.

For more information about the Tel Rumeida Project, and videos of recent settler attacks in Tel Rumeida, see their website:
www.telrumeidaproject.org .

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6. Farmers march for their lives

On Sunday the 18th at 2:00 PM Farmers of the Tubas region will hold their second march to the Bardala checkpoint. This checkpoint has served as the only venue where Palestinian farmers could sell their produce to Israeli traders for distribution. For the last two weeks the checkpoint has been closed and the farmers produce has been left to rot.

Villagers from Tubas region own fertile agricultural land on which they depend as their only source of income.

Ahmed Sawaft Director of PARC (Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees) in Tubas warns: “If this closure continues it will mean an agricultural and economic disaster for the area.”

The villages of Bardala, Ein Al Beda, Cardala and Wadi Al Malech are in an enclave in the Jordan Valley. The only entry and exit point to this enclave is the Tyaseer checkpoint. Anyone who is not registered on their Israeli-issued I.D. card as from these villages or has a limited-time permit is forbidden to enter by the Israeli military.

On Wednesday The 14th of December the farmers marched to the checkpoint with their produce. Journalists as well as International and Israeli supporters were denied access the area.

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7. from the Israeli press;Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem slams West Bank separation fence

December 13th, 2005 | By The Associated Press

www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/656456.html

The top Roman Catholic official in the Holy Land planted an olive tree Sunday on the planned route of Israel’s separation barrier in a West Bank village and prayed for the wall’s removal, saying it is serves no purpose.

The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah, visited the barrier in the village of Abud that Israel says it needs to keep Palestinian attackers out.

“This position and the confiscation of lands have no reason at all. (The wall) doesn’t benefit the security of either Israel or anybody else. Our prayers are for the removal of this physical wall currently under construction and the return of our lands and your lands to you,” Sabbah told his audience, a group of some 1,000 protesters and believers who traveled with him to the planned route of the wall.
Sabbah, the first Palestinian to hold the top Roman Catholic position in the Holy Land, has been the patriarch since 1988 and has often had testy relations with Israel. He said last Christmas that the separation barrier has turned Bethlehem into a “prison.”

“We share your concerns,” Sabbah said Sunday to the people of Abud, but urged them to keep their protests peaceful.

“Our hearts are filled with love, and no hatred for anybody, We want life for ourselves,” he said. “This peace will be possible regardless of the obstacles put between the people.”

Israeli soldiers stood on the other side of the barbed wire and removed one of the protesters from the scene, averting a clash, witnesses said.