Tag: Digests

The Wall Must Fall

1. Twenty-one Year Old Palestinian tortured in IOF jail
2. Tubas Area Residents to Hold Anti-Checkpoint Demonstration on Tuesday
3. Mohammed Mansour’s Court Case to Restart Tuesday
4. Successful First Anti-wall Demo in Abud Village
5. Bil’in: Independence in a Prison
6. CPT Hebron: At-Tuwani: Palestinian landowner forbidden to cultivate his land

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1. Twenty-one Year Old Palestinian tortured in IOF jail

November 20th, 2005

By Johan

On Friday the 18th of November at 15:00, the IOF released 21 year old Hamza Samara from custody on a 10,000 NIS bail. ISM would like to thank all of you who donated money to the ISM Palestine Legal Fund, making Hamza’s release possible. During 25 days in jail, Hamza was subjected to torture and insults on several occasions.

Hamza was arrested at 02:00 in the morning on the 24th of October 2005. The IOF had entered Bil’in, a small village in the West Bank, to abduct him and another Palestinian man. The soldiers tied his hands and blindfolded him, and brought him to Ofer Military Base near Beituniya. When they reached the military base, the soldiers put him on a small chair, where he was kept until the morning, still blindfolded with his hands tied. When Hamza asked the soldiers if he could move to sit on the floor, the soldiers kicked him and insulted him.

The abuse continued. Hamza was not allowed to go to the bathroom when he needed to. After a long while he started crying and kept asking the soldiers to let him use the toilet. At that point the soldiers finally gave their permission, but on the way to the bathroom the soldiers pushed Hamza and hit him, and refused to untie his hands, saying: “Do it as you like, we are not going to take the chains off.” Other Palestinians serving long term sentences at the military base supported Hamza by welcoming him and giving him clothes and cigarettes.

Hamza was accused of having destroyed a part of the illegal Israeli apartheid wall. But not until one week after his arrest did the IOF bring him in front of a military court. After postponing the court hearing three times, the judge decided to release Hamza on a 10,000 NIS bail.

The UN Convention Against Torture defines torture as “any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind.” The State of Israel has not signed this convention, the reasons for which seem obvious in the light of the abuse Hamza had to endure in jail.

Unfortunately, Hamza’s arrest and subsequent torture is not an isolated event. In Bil’in alone, 18 young Palestinian men and children have been arrested in nightly raids in the last month. 16 of these people remain in Israeli Military Law. Bil’in is severely affected by the apartheid wall, which has stolen 60% of the agricultural land of the village, and transferred it to the nearby settlement Modi’in Elite.

“It’s our right to destroy the wall”, a friend of Hamza said, “but they think if you destroy it you are a terrorist or something”. The International Court of Justice in the Hague concluded in 2004 that “the construction of the wall […] and its associated régime, are contrary to international law”.

Related Links:
* UN Convention Against Torture
http://www.hrweb.org/legal/cat.html
* International Court of Justice ruling on the Apartheid Wall
http://stopthewall.org/internationallaw/639.shtml
* More ISM dispatches from Bil’in
https://www.palsolidarity.org/main/category/bilin/

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2. Tubas Area Residents to Hold Anti-Checkpoint Demonstration on Tuesday
November 20th, 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

At 10am residents of the Tubas area together with Israeli and international supporters will protest against Tyaseer checkpoint. The checkpoint has isolated four Palestinian villages and agricultural land belonging to four further villages.

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 which is the Tyaseer checkpoint. Anyone who is not registered on their I.D. card as from these villages or has a time limited permit is forbidden to enter by the Israeli military. In order to be allowed to move freely many residents of this village have registered there addresses in Tubas itself. Now, if they leave their villages they are forbidden to return.

Hundreds of villagers from Tubas, Aqaba, Tayaseer and Tamun villages who own fertile agricultural land, on which they depend as there only source of income, have been denied permits by the Israeli authorities and can no longer access their land.

Tayaseer and Aqaba are in an area considered a “Military Zone”. Occupation officials have made no secret of their opinion that Aqaba “just should not be there”. Recently the military confiscated villagers sheep and burnt there grazing grounds. According to Ha’aretz (26th March 1999), 8 villagers from the village were killed and 43 wounded by the Israeli military between 1967 when they “adopted” it as a training facility and September 2000 when they were forced to pull after the village brought a successful case against the them to the Israeli high court. More recently, the military declared all the village homes to be “illegally built” and threatened to demolish the whole village, issuing demolition orders in the village. These efforts were defeated by international protests.

On the website of the Rebuilding Alliance you find a film by Amir Terkel about Aqaba
http://4blacksheep.com/clients/rebuilding_alliance/Aqabeh_April_2005.mov
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3. Mohammed Mansour’s Court Case to Restart Tuesday

November 20th, 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Palestinian non-violent organiser Mohammed Mansour from Biddu will appear in court again on Tuesday. He is scheduled to appear before an Israeli judge at the “Peace Court” in occupied east Jerusalem at 9:30 am. Mohammed is being charged with assaulting a police officer and throwing stones following his arrest by undercover police during a non-violent demonstration against the apartheid wall in Al Ram on June 26th 2004.

At Mohammed’s last hearing, the prosecution offered Mohammed’s lawyer a deal. Mohammed would have to had accepted a 3500 shekel fine and the condition that he not participate in any demonstrations for the next two years. Mohammed rejected the deal.

When Mohammed was initially arrested in June 2004 he was severely beaten, hospitalised and then held for a week before his release on bail together with another three Palestinians, including two minors, who were arrested at the Al Ram demonstration. Five Israeli peace activists, also arrested at the demonstration, were released a few hours following their arrest.

A Palestinian photographer working for the Israeli news paper Yediot Ahreonot was also assaulted and severely beaten by undercover police during the demonstration.

Mohammed’s trail is taking place while 16 non violent activists from the village of Bil’in are still in jail in an attempt to crush the non-violent resistance in the village.

The International Solidarity Movement condemns the Israeli legal system’s defense of war crimes committed by the Israeli military and settlers, as well as its criminalization of non-violent protest against the Occupation.
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4. Successful First Anti-wall Demo in Abud Village

November 18th, 2005

This Friday morning villagers from Abud, a village in the West Bank, held their first non-violent demonstration against the construction of the illegal Israeli annexation wall. The wall is threatening to steal agricultural land and water resources from the small Muslim/Christian village of 2500 citizens.

At 10:30 the villagers, accompanied by Israeli and international activists, gathered in front of the local council building and started walking to the construction site of the illegal apartheid wall. At the site, a prayer was conducted by Sheikh Tayeer Tammimi, the imam of al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, and a speech was held by Atalah Hana, Bishop of Jerusalem and the head of and the Greek Orthodox Church in Palestine. These two events constituted a message of unity among the villagers across religious boundaries.

After the speech, the demonstrators started to entered the construction area by crossing roadblocks, passing Israeli soldiers and almost getting run down by military jeeps driving right into the mass of people. The soldiers continuously threw sound bombs into the crowd and attempted to beat the demonstrators away. Around 12.00 the Israeli military started throwing teargas grenades directly at the demonstrators. A lot of people got tear gased and two Palestinians were hit by the shrapnel from the grenades, but no one was seriously injured.

The demonstration gathered around 300 protesters, among them approximately 40 Israeli and international Human Rights Observers. No one was arrested. Present at the demonstration was Qadurra Fares, member of the Legislative Council and Head of the Office Against the Wall.

For pictures:
https://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2005/11/18/successful-first-anti-wall-demo-in-abud-village/

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5. Bil’in: Independence in a Prison

November 20th, 2005

On Friday November 17th, the villagers of Bil’in and their supporters carried balloons with the Palestinian colors and small flags, marching under banners proclaiming “Your wall kills ours independence” in Arabic, Hebrew, and English. The colorful group of some two hundred and fifty people chanted and sang their way to the site of the wall construction, where they were stopped by Israeli soldiers. The nonviolent resistance in Bil’in, against the construction of the wall and the theft of more than half of village land, has become a symbol of cooperation between Palestinians, internationals and Israelis. Encouragingly, the latter group made up almost half of the crowd.

The demonstrators attempted for over an hour to reach the site of the wall construction and attach the balloons. The soldiers aggressively pushed the crowd back. There where several confrontations when demonstrators sat down and blocked the encroachment of the soldiers. Several of the soldiers chased after some young boys on the hillside and provoked clashes between the army and stone-throwing youth that continued after the demonstration was over. When the demonstration had decided to disperse back into the village one of the Israeli activists turned to the soldiers and said, “see you next week”.

For pictures:
https://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2005/11/20/independence-in-a-prison/

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6. CPT Hebron: At-Tuwani: Palestinian landowner forbidden to cultivate his land

The tiny hamlets of the South Hebron hills are doggedly trying to eke out their sustenance for the fields they have always cultivated in this beautiful rugged terrain to their misfortune, they are situated practically in the throat of the newcomers to the area – settlements and outposts of Maon -and the incident described is one in a long systematic chain.

On Thursday, November 17, 2005, Israeli settlers, soldiers and police prevented a Palestinian landowner from the village of Mufakara (a kilometer from At-Tuwani) from cultivating his land. Shortly before 10 AM, three Israeli settlers in trucks and four Israeli soldiers in a hummer arrived on the land and announced the Palestinian landowner must leave. The settlers, who were from the illegal settlement outpost of Avi Hai (1.5km away), claimed the land did not belong to the Palestinian, but to the outpost of
Avi Hai.

CPTers went to investigate when they received a call alerting them of the situation.
When the CPTers arrived, they found the Israeli soldiers and settlers, and also police gathered on land above the halted tractor. The police were looking at maps drawn by the settlers and discussing ownership of the land, mostly with the settlers. The Palestinian landowner repeatedly told the police that his family had owned the land for generations. The police insisted that unless the Palestinian had documents on hand to prove ownership, they would enforce the boundaries outlined on the settlers’ map.

As the discussions continued, the Israeli police threatened to arrest CPTers for taking photographs, videotaping, and not leaving the area. Eventually the police advised the Palestinian man to go with them to the Israeli police station in Kiryat Arba for further discussion. The Palestinian left with the Israeli police and later told CPTers what happened.

As soon as the police and the Palestinian arrived at the police station, the police met alone with the settlers (who drove to the station in their own vehicles). The police then informed the Palestinian that the land in question does belong to the outpost of Avi Hai. The Palestinian restated that his family owns the land and that he does have documents proving ownership, including a recent Israeli High Court decision differentiating his land from Israeli State Land. The police responded by ordering him not to return to his land. The man insisted he would return, as it is his family’s land. When the Palestinian landowner told the police he was leaving the police station, they told him he must pay a 500 shekel fine, saying, “This is the rule.” When he refused, the police said that instead of paying the fine he could go to jail. He refused again, and the police said they would let him go if he signed a document agreeing not to return to the land for two weeks.
Although he refused to sign, the police allowed him to leave without either paying a fine or signing any documents.

The Palestinian landowners from Mufakara have cultivated their land on this hillside for years without interference from Israeli settlers, military, or police.

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For more reports, journals and action alerts visit the ISM website at www.palsolidarity.org

Please consider supporting the International Solidarity Movement’s work with a financial contribution. You may donate securely through our website at https://www.palsolidarity.org/main/donations/

Arafat marches in Bil’in

1. Continuing arrests and IDF harassment in Bil’in: 1 beating, arrest of the Bear
2. Tel Rumeida settlement expands during olive harvest while Knesset tour area
3. Bil’in on anniversary of Arafat’s death: link to World peace struggles
4. Bil’in demonstrators: 14-year-old hit in the head by rubber bullet (Haaretz story)
5. IDF Gives Settler Tours Of Palestinian Checkpoint
6. More than just Olives: testimonial from Nablus area
7. What’s so special about Nablus: Activist’s account
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1. Israeli Military response to Non Violent demonstration: One Palestinian activist beaten and “The Bear” arrested

Written by an ISM activist
November 14th 2005

Saturday night, November 12th, a military force of around fifty Israeli soldiers invaded the village of Bil’in.

The army entered the house of Hazem Shukat Khatib (26) and arrested him. His three brothers Wajdi, Khaled, and Basel were all already arrested in the recent wave of nighttime incursions into Bil’in, and remain incarcerated. Hazem was severely beaten by the soldiers during his detention. He was eventually taken to Givat Zeev police station for questioning, and was then released.

During the same raid, Ashraf Ibrahim Abu Rahme “the bear” (22), a well known and much loved anti-wall activist from Bil’in, was also arrested in his home and continues to be detained.

Meanwhile Hamza Samara (22) is still detained. The Judge at his trial at Ofer Military Base on Thursday November 10th offered his release on bail of NIS 10,000. The prosecution was given 72 hours to appeal against this decision, during which time he remained in custody. The prosecution lodged such appeal with less than 2 hours remaining, and Hamza continues to be detained while waiting court hearing on Tuesday.

This brings to eighteen the number of Bil’in activists currently held in Israeli military prison.

In addition, the Israeli military entered and searched a further four homes in the village. The harassment of the head of the village council, Ahmed Issa Yasin, and his family continued when once again they were woken by soldiers banging on their door. These soldiers were fully aware that Ahmed Issa Yasin’s sons Basem and Abdullah were
not at home, as they were all recently arrested (along with 14 other Bil’in villagers) in similar raids and remain in detention.

Mohammed Ali Burnat and his five small children were also woken and compelled to endure soldiers forcing their way into their home and searching it in the middle of the night.

For the last ten months Bil’in has launched an ongoing non-violent campaign against the annexation barrier, supported by hundreds of Israeli and International activists, which is repeatedly met by violence from the Israeli army. Israel designed the current route of the barrier to annex 60% of Bil’in’s agricultural land, and to expand the settlement of Modi’in Elite. Plans for Modi’in Elite’s expansion have yet to be approved by the Israeli government.

On October 21st, in such an act of non violent resistance, Bil’in villagers began to implement the decision of the International Court of Justice, that Israel’s illegal wall should be dismantled, by removing metal foundation posts on Bil’in land. The Israeli military reacted with arrests and distributed a document in Arabic warning people not to take part in direct action against the wall. In the text the army claimed that “every Friday for the last six months, the IDF has allowed the people of the village to conduct non-violent protests against the construction of the wall on their lands”, despite regularly firing on non-violent demonstrators with tear gas and rubber bullets. The text concluded with the threat that “the acts of the people violating the law will disturb your daily lives”.
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2. Settlers Attack Olive Pickers in Tel Rumeida, while Knesset members tour nearby.

Written from reports by ISM activists
November 11th, 2005

Armed settlers from Tel Rumeida repeatedly attacked 4 Palestinian families as they tried to harvest their olives in Tel Rumeida today.

The Palestinians, accompanied by 4 members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams and 3 ISMers were initially attacked in the morning, by a group of settler kids throwing stones.
By afternoon, Settler leader Baruch Marzel and three other adult settlers with assault rifles arrived at the Syag family property where the group was picking and inspecting the home.

The family property had been occupied over seven months ago by IDF, the family prevented from entering. They did not receive compensation or indication of when it would be returned. When the Syag patriarch died, the family had regularly tended the property and olive groves while they arranged his estate, until they were evicted.

The IDF vacated two days ago and this was the first time members of the Syag family managed to survey the damage. The IDF squatters had burned as firewood all the furniture, ie tables, beds, chairs, sofas. Every window pane had been smashed. All toilet facilities on the ground floor were destroyed including every cistern and faucet. There was recent defecation in the shower. All electric wires and switches had been torn out of the walls. Profane graffiti was daubed on the walls with large Stars of David painted beside Gargoyle heads. All doors had been removed including metal ones. Upstairs explosives had blown holes in walls and all mirrors were broken. The inside of the roof had been torn down.

In this current incident a settler (in plain clothes) produced a military I.D. and demanded that the Palestinians and Internationals leave the olive groves and the house. They began yelling “This is our land now. This is Israel”, throwing stones at, and pushing the Internationals. Three soldiers arrived at the behest of the settlers, and commanded the Palestinians and Internationals to leave the property, whilst ignoring the violence of the settlers. During this time, several of the Palestinians and Internationals were hit with stones and an Australian woman from the ISM was pushed and slapped.

When the IDF soldiers came, the team were forced to retreat behind the house where they were held back at gunpoint by the IDF. The settlers occupied the house and began throwing its contents and the rubble at the Palestinians and Internationals outside.

Eventually 10 officers of the regular and border police arrived, called to the scene by neighbour and human rights lawyer Yehayah Abu Zeineh. The Palestinians complained about the attacks and the failure of the soldiers present to even attempt to protect them. Once told that there was also video evidence to support these complaints, the police promptly arrested Yehayah, who was unlawfully detained for four hours. The settlers were not arrested and it seems the Tel Rumeida settlement has just expanded approximately two hundred square meters of land, courtesy of the IDF.

Meanwhile nearby Shuhaddah street was closed to the Palestinian population today. Neither community leaders nor the local population were informed of the reason for this closure. The road was not closed to settlers.

It transpired that this was due to the surprise visit of members of the Knesset. While these visitors were shown the closed shop fronts and the Star of David graffiti daubed on the walls by Settlers, all Palestinians were either prevented from entering Shuhaddah street or told to remain indoors. The visiting Knesset members may have gotten the false impression that this area was devoid of Palestinian life and the settlement was occupying empty real estate. In truth Tel Rumeida is the home of a vital but embattled Palestinian community whose property is being slowly invaded by Settlers, and their businesses closed by a process of intimidation and violence, aided and abetted by both the IDF and police.

While the tour passed along the Shuhaddah street, accompanied by a large number of IDF and police, Palestinians approached the members of the Knesset and invited them to attend the olive picking and witness the settler violence occurring only a few hundred meters away. They declined citing reasons of personnel safety.
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3. Bili’in on Arafat’s anniversary: Struggle in the World peace context.

Written by ISM activist Jesse
November 11th, 2005

This Friday, the West Bank villagers of Bili’n, joined by around 150 Israeli and International activists held their weekly demonstration against the Apartheid barrier which will claim much of the village’s land. The protesters marched from the village mosque at about 12pm out to the site of the construction, intent on bringing light to the injustice of this land grab in the name of “security.” This week, the non violent struggles of other nations were highlighted and linked to the struggle here in Palestine as demonstrators carried pictures of Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, as well as Yassir Arafat.

When the demonstration approached the construction site there was an armed battalion of Israeli border police waiting, so the demonstrators quickly turned right and headed into the active construction area where bulldozers and large dump trucks were working on the barrier site.

Soldiers tried to prevent the demonstrators from penetrating the construction zone but were unsuccessful as many of them rushed past and into the path of the construction vehicles, delaying their work. The soldiers began pushing and shoving people out of the area, and some were being dragged and thrown around brutally causing bruises and cuts.

A sound bomb was used at one point and the demonstrators were dragged away from the work vehicles. An hour passed with demonstrators chanting and peacefully protesting against the land grab and barrier creation. At about 1:30pm one of the soldiers used a loudspeaker to announce something that was unintelligible, probably a warning to disperse. The demonstrators continued to chant and stand their ground as the soldiers loaded up with tear gas grenades, launchers, sound bombs, and rubber bullet attachments for their weapons.

All of a sudden, without provocation, the soldiers attacked the peaceful demonstration as one, with the vicious ferocity of a beast waiting to pounce on it’s prey. Sound bombs, tear gas, and physical beatings were unleashed on the demonstrators as the soldiers chased the them into the olive groves nearby.

For a half an hour or so the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) continued to launch rounds of tear gas into the fields as well as into the yards of houses on the edge of the village. The children of the village began throwing stones in retaliation for the unprovoked attack, and the soldiers responded with rubber bullets and according to one witness; some live rounds. One child was hit in the head with a rubber bullet and was hospitalized, his condition still unknown.

The demonstrators then regrouped near the construction site and attempted to stop the violence, which did eventually abate. The soldiers then rushed the crowd with an extraction crew of about 5 soldiers, arresting and beating one of the demonstrators, renewing a round of violence which was much shorter lived.

A few Israeli Occupation Forces troops and a number of protesters were injured and one was arrested twice. Among the wounded was the chairman of Bil’in council who fainted after inhaling teargas. The detainee was released the second time on condition that the demonstration return to the village. Just before 4pm the detainee was released and the demonstration returned to the village.
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4. Bil’in demonstrators: 14-year-old hit in the head by rubber bullet

By Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondent,
November 12th, 2005
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/644420.html

A 14-year-old demonstrator was hit by a rubber bullet in the head in clashes with security forces during what has become Friday’s weekly protest against the separation fence near the West Bank of Bil’in, demonstrators said. The teen was taken to hospital and his condition is still unknown.

Five Israel Defense Forces troops were also lightly injured in the clashes. At least 15 protesters were injured and three were arrested during the clashes in the security fence area in the West Bank village.

Among the wounded was the chairman of the Bil’in council who fainted after inhaling teargas. The demonstrators claimed that they were beaten by soldiers and policemen, and that security forces threw stun grenades at protesters without provocation. Around 100 Israelis and Palestinians participated in the demonstration against the construction of the separation fence in the area, and some of them succeeded in stopping construction work on it.

The Israel Defense Forces said that the protesters blocked one of the engineering vehicles in the area. The IDF said that when the protesters refused to get away from it, they had to use special means to disperse the demonstrators.
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5. IDF Gives Settlers Tour Of Palestinian Checkpoint

By ISM Activist
November 13th, 2005

Today in Tel Rumeda, a focal point for Settler aggression to Palestinian citizens, Isreali Defence Forces were giving tours of the Security facilities to armed Settlers. The previous day the IDF were defending members of the Knesset on a tour of the area from these same settlers.

The first party of Settlers were filmed entering the cabin of the Checkpoint at the bottom of Shuhadda street. They were allowed inside the cabin to observe Palestinians pass through metal detectors. Many of the Palestinians had to remove their trouser belts and expose their abdomen while these Settlers were allowed observe. The Settlers were then shown the internal workings of the checkpoint metal detector and communications equipment by an IDF soldier.

The Settlers themselves do not have to use this checkpoint, having free access to Tel Rumeida from other points in Hebron.

When asked to comment, the Hebron Army branch of the IDF said they ‘would look into the matter’. Yet only two hours after this incident, another group of Orthodox Jews were brought to the same checkpoint, again brought inside the checkpoint cabin and again observed Palestinians dressing and undressing.

The presence of both tours was not hidden: Palestinians leaving the checkpoint merely had to look through the cabin window to see the Settlers or Orthodox Jews behind the counter. This humiliating and intimidating experience again typifies the local IDF’s attitude of accommodating Settlers, at any cost and their total inability to deal with the Palestinian community in Tel Rumeida with any understanding.
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6. More than just olives

By an ISM activist, Henry
November 2005

I picked olives with a family in Roujeeb, a village just outside Nablus, and we all had a wonderful time. The daughter in the family, Ghadeer, spoke excellent English and we had some great conversations, about the world, about politics, American TV shows; she learned her English in school and by watching Seinfeld and Look Who’s Talking, which explains her sharp comic wit. She and her husband Sami have 3 children, Ahmed, Imad, and Ale, and while we were there they were either in school or with us in the olive groves playing. Before we left today, she asked me if she could write a letter to my mother. I was so overwhelmed by what she wrote and the kindness of her family, I wanted to share it with you all, so here it is;

Dear Sue,
You don’t know me. My name is Ghadeer. I’m a Palestinian young lady who has the honor to have Henry at her home, I just wanted to raise my hat to the mother who raised such a son, you should be proud of him. I know that you must have been very worried about him, but believe me you shouldn’t. I and my family would protect him with our lives, he is kind and so sensitive. I also wanted to say that if you have a previous idea about Palestinians and Arabs we aren’t all terrorists and criminals or at least I know I’m not. We’re a simple people who wants to live in peace. We have a saying “May Allah protect the tummy carried you to life,” so thank you , you have done an excellent job.

We loved your son and he loves you so very much. I’m a mother myself so I understand your worry,

yours,
Ghadeer
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7. What’s so special about Nablus?

By ISM Activist Henry
November 2005

I just traveled from Nablus to Ramallah, which on a good day is no more than an hour, or an hour and a half drive. Of course, on a bad day, who knows, it could take you all day, or worse; the key of course is getting past the checkpoints that lie between them, particularly Huwwara checkpoint, just outside Nablus. Myself and a random collection of ISMers got through Huwwara without a problem. The checkpoint a collection of bars, cages, concrete barriers, a makeshift roof and areas for cars and buses to be stopped as well. When I arrived in Nablus a week ago, it was a rainy not so pleasant day, which was probably one reason that the soldiers were shouting at the Palestinians trying to leave Nablus; it was a pretty ugly scene. Once an Israeli told me that in the army they learn what he called “oppressor Arabic;” shouting various commands, get up, stop, turn around, open the door, etc. Really, what do you expect when you give an 18-20 year old boy a rifle and have he/she spend the next few years holding the power of life and death over another people that they know little about?

On our way back to Rammallah, we went threw Huwarra, with minimal comment from the soldiers. Once an Irish girl I was traveling with was asked at a checkpoint, are you from Ireland? Do you drink beer? Anyway, we got a van and a Palestinian man joined us, so off we went… until we reached the next checkpoint, at the village of Zaatara. There the van driver nervously collected our passports and brought them up to the soldier before driving then van up, ran back and then brought the van up to the checkpoint. The soldier then noticed that there was a Palestinian man in the van and his ID was not with the passports that had been brought to him. He asked him “why did you not include your ID, why” in very gruff, patronizing (to say the least) tone. Hell, this kid could not have been a day over 21, sounded like he was Russian, and he was talking to this man who was obviously middle aged like he was some stupid child; but, the Palestinian man responded calmly, intelligently, and in much better English “you did not ask for it, you only asked for the passports, if you want my ID, you can ask for it and I will give it to you.” Seeing that he was not going to intimidate him, and probably a bit unnerved in the presence of 6 internationals emerging from Nablus, he then turned to us, well, me since I was closest. He asked me, “where did you come from” and I said “from Nablus” (One thing you learn fast, it’s to keep your answers short and simple, no need to go into details!). He then said “what’s so special about Nablus?” in such a condescending tone; so I replied, well, it is an old city. Now, those familiar with Nablus know that it is true, it is an old city; but it was also a joke of sorts, because the Arabic name Nablus derives from the Roman name for the city, Neopolis, which actually means “New City.” But of course when he said that, his attitude was like, “why did you go to there, what’s so special about the ghetto?” But, without further ado and us stating we were going to Jerusalem we were off.

After some venting and cursing of the soldier, the Palestinian man, who was in the front seat turned to us and said, “so, what IS so special about Nablus?” Of course we laughed, and he introduced himself; his name is Khaled and he runs a restaurant in Abu Dis. He then told us that he was just returning after his first visit to Nablus in 5 years. His friend in Nablus is cannot travel to Abu Dis, and he was unable to get to Nablus during the past years. This is a common story throughout Palestine, as the Israeli army and settler “matrix of control” in the words of Jeff Halper (ICAHD), slice up the territory into cantons and limit the ability of Palestinians to travel from place to place. And of course, this is a process that began not a year ago, and not a few years ago, but in earnest since the times of “peace.” Although settlements began in the hours after the 1967 war, and increased dramatically from the late 70’s on, nothing could compare to the settlement and settlement infrastructure (roads, walls, etc) expansion of the Oslo era; that is where the obvious on the ground scheme for ethnic and national separation began, and it has not stopped since.

Celebrating Resistance

1. Bil’in Lock-on and Demonstration Report
2. Palestinian Non-Violent Organiser Mohammed Mansour’s Court Case Continues
3. Two sides, one goal – Palestinian, Israeli tour Bay Area to support non-violent resistance to military occupation
4. “Demolish all the illegally built homes in the West Bank” – Israeli Chief of Staff General Dan Halutz
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1. Bil’in Lock-on and Demonstration Report

November 4th, 2005

by Johan

On Friday morning at 7:55am, 3 Palestinians, 7 Israelis and 5 internationals chained themselves to the posts of the apartheid wall that is currently under construction near Bil’in, a small village in the West Bank. This act of non-violent resistance was aimed at illustrating the devastating effect the wall has on this and other villages in the West Bank. The idea was to force the Israeli soldiers to destroy the posts in order to remove the activists from the scene – this, however, did not work out as planned. At 8:10am the soldiers had managed to untie all the activists, and dragged them away from the posts. Three Israelis were brought to the police station, but were released later in the morning.

The demonstration then turned into a playground when children’s toys were handed out and a slide was raised close to the line of the soldiers. Children were playing and chanting together with the activists in front of the surprised soldiers and members of the Border Police.

Around 11:00 three Israeli activists once again chained themselves to a fence. After fruitless attempts of getting them loose, Border Police changed their tactics and waited close by in order to arrest the activists when they decided to loosen themselves. When they did, however, they managed to escape arrest by running through the olive groves towards the village, tailed for a while by Border Police that didn’t quite reach the same running speed and eventually gave up.

After the noon prayer that was conducted at the scene of the demonstration, the rain came and people started to drop off. At 12:30 the demonstration was over. Apart from some pushing from the soldiers and Border Police, it was a peaceful demonstration without violence – no tear gas, rubber bullets or other experimental “less lethal weapons” were used. Apart from the three Israelis in the morning no other arrests were made.

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2. Palestinian Non-Violent Organiser Mohammed Mansour’s Court Case Continues

On Wednesday the 2nd of November 2005 Palestinian non violent organiser Muhammed Mansour from Biddu appeared before an Israeli judge in Occupied east Jerusalem. Mohamed is being charged with assaulting a police officer and throwing stones following his arrest by under cover police during a non violent demonstration against the annexation wall in Al Ram on June 26th 2004. During the hearing the prosecution offered Mohammed’s lawyer a deal. Mohammed would have to accept a 3500 shekel fine and the condition that he not participate in any demonstrations for the next two years. Mohammed rejected the deal. The case was deferred until 22nd February 2006.

When Mohammed was initially arrested in June 2004 he was severely beaten, hospitalised and then held for a week before his release on bail together with another three Palestinians, including two minors, who were arrested at the Al-Ram demonstration. Five Israeli peace activists, also arrested at the demonstration, were released a few hours following their arrest.

A Palestinian photographer working for the Israeli news paper Yediot Ahreonot was also assaulted and severely beaten by undercover police during the demonstration.

Mohammed’s trail is taking place while 17 non violent activists from the village of Bil’in are currently in jail in an attempt to crush the non-violent resistance in the village.

The International Solidarity Movement condemns the Israeli legal system’s defense of war crimes committed by the Israeli military and settlers, as well as its criminalization of non-violent protest against the Occupation.

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3. “Two sides, one goal” – Palestinian, Israeli tour Bay Area to support non-violent resistance to military occupation

November 1st, 2005

By Katherine Corcoran

Originally published in the Mercury News

Ayed Morrar, 43, a Palestinian, puts his arm on the back of Jonathan Pollak, 23, an Israeli, and says, “He’s like my son.”

The two are touring the Bay Area through Wednesday, when they will address a Stanford University class on the Israeli-Arab conflict, as part of a national speaking campaign on what they call the little-known, non-violent resistance movement in the Palestinian territories.

Pollak is fasting in solidarity with Morrar, who is observing Ramadan. They are staying in homes and attending fundraisers sponsored by Arab-American and Jewish families. Still, their integrated, peaceful resistance against Israel’s military occupation and the barrier it is erecting in the West Bank gets scant attention in the United States and the rest of the world, they say.

“We have to show people the real situation there to win the occupation, because the propaganda shows us as criminals,” Morrar said last week, sitting in the Los Altos living room of Lisa Nessan, who is Jewish. “We are against violence from any side, against killing by Israelis and Palestinians.”

Their tour, which started in New York and goes to Seattle, Minneapolis, Detroit and other major cities from here, is sponsored by the International Solidarity Movement, a pro-Palestinian group that recruits and trains international observers and activists to protest in the Palestinian territories. The group gained world headlines when American protester Rachel Corrie was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in 2003, and British student Tom Hurndall was shot in 2004 by an Israeli soldier, who was later convicted of manslaughter.

But like anything having to do with the Middle East conflict, claims to non-violence or peace get drowned out in a din of competing voices and events. Last week marked another bloody string of violence, with Israeli troops targeting Islamic Jihad militants, who killed five Israelis in a revenge suicide attack.

Critics say the International Solidarity Movement is not really about peace. They cite writings by its leaders that acknowledge a place for armed resistance in liberation movements.

“They don’t pick up guns or throw bombs. But they don’t oppose those who do, either,” said Yitzhak Santis, director of the Middle East Project at the Jewish Community Relations Council in San Francisco. “It’s propaganda. They want well-intentioned, good-meaning people to support them. But what goes on on the ground is something quite different.”

Complicated story

Still, Morrar, a government worker who must clear two checkpoints to get to work in Ramallah, and Pollak, a graphic artist from Tel Aviv and an activist since his teens, are part of a growing number of opponents to the Israeli occupation. They want to tell their side of a complicated story in the United States, a steadfast supporter of Israel in foreign policy, and a place where many charge the news accounts are biased toward Israel.

“It’s time we voice opposition to policies that are being carried out in our name,” said Pollak, referring to Israelis who are against the occupation.

Their current focus is the wall Israel is building in the West Bank, which in parts veers from the agreed-upon border and cuts into Palestinian territories, separating villagers from their jobs and farmland. Supporters of the wall say it has cut violence against Israelis by 90 percent.

The wall, which has been ruled illegal by the International Court of Justice in the Hague, has sparked a peace movement that had difficulty finding a place amid the almost ever-present bullets and bombings.

Condemning violence

“We need everyone, children, women, old people to join the struggle. With all the violence, they couldn’t get out there,” said Morrar, adding that his and Pollak’s group in the Palestinian territories, Popular Committees to Resist the Wall, condemns all violence, including armed resistance. “The military struggle has no role for the people.”

In talks in Bay Area churches, universities and labor halls, Morrar and Pollak show footage of women in abayas at the wall, shouting peace slogans through bullhorns, and international protesters spraying peace signs on military vehicles — all being hit by Israeli soldiers with tear-gas canisters and rubber bullets.

Morrar doesn’t deny that non-violent demonstrations draw members of Hamas and Fatah, political parties with militant arms. But he says his group doesn’t refuse any protesters, as long as they follow the rules of peaceful resistance.

“If we refuse them, they will go to the violent way,” said Morrar, who has been jailed five times, once for six years in the 1990s, and bears a long, deep scar from a gunshot wound on his upper arm. “To struggle does not mean to kill. To kill is to lose your humanity.”

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4. “Demolish all the illegally built homes in the West Bank” – Israeli Chief of Staff General Dan Halutz

Recent Statement by Chief of Staff General Dan Halutz

PRESS RELEASE
by the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD)

28 Oct 2005

ICAHD notices with concern the statement by Chief of Staff, Gen. Dan Halutz, as reported in Ma’ariv (October 26, 2005), in which he is quoted as saying that in response to the recent suicide attack in Hadera Market he would implement various responses. Amongst responses he proposes is “to demolish all the illegally built homes in the West Bank, as those houses are used as shelter by terrorists.”

In the West Bank there are thousands of illegally built homes, as a result of the deliberate policies of the Israeli government’s “Civil Administration” (the Army), which prevents Palestinians from receiving building permits, and even demolishes in Area B.

Chief of Staff Dan Halutz is well known as a man without conscience, an extremist hardliner, whom we remember as having given an order to use a one-ton bomb on a house in a densely populated area, to kill a militant leader. His remarks after the operation even shocked judges in Israel’s Supreme Court: that he “sleeps well at night” even though 14 civilians were killed during that notorious operation, including many innocent women and children.

Even though we understand that the Chief of Staff will be unable to demolish literally “thousands of homes,” we are certain that he will make sure to demolish many homes in revenge for attacks, whether now or in future.

We call on the international community to demand that the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs stop these diabolical projects and that Israel be forced to abide by international law which forbids an occupying power to demolish the homes of innocent civilians.

For further details:

Meir Margalit, Co-ordinator: 0544-345 503

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For more reports, journals and action alerts visit the ISM website at www.palsolidarity.org
Please consider supporting the International Solidarity Movement’s work with a financial contribution. You may donate securely through our website at www.palsolidarity.org

Arrests, Human Shields and Non-violent Resistance

1. Three More Night-time Arrests in Bil’in; Soldiers Use Human Shield
2. More Settler Attacks in Hebron, While Soldiers and Police Watch
3. “The Nonviolent Option” An Article about US Tour by Palestinian and Israeli Non-Violent Activists Ayed Morrar and Jonathan Pollack
4. Round-up of Recent Events in Qawawis
5. Prisoner Solidarity and Anti-Wall Protest to Continue in Bil’in on Friday in the Face of Continued Military Suppression

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1. Three More Night-time Arrests in Bil’in; Soldiers Use Human Shield
November 1st, 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Israeli soldiers invaded Bil’in last night and made three more arrests of young men and boys. Three jeeps of Border Police arrived about 1:30 am and went into several houses to make arrests for alleged stone throwing during demonstrations. Once again, the people of the village came out on the street to resist further arrests, and drive the military out. A group of about 50 Palestinians came out chanting and clapping in another act of non-violent resistance.

ISM activists witnessed and caught on film the usage of human shields by the Israeli military last night, which has been ruled illegal under Israeli law (footage available on request).

The names of the new arrestees are:

Abdullah Ahmed Yassin, 14
Nour Mahmoud Yassin, 19 (cousins)
Nayes Gazzi alKatib, 18

These three arrests are in addition to the previous arrests of fifteen Palestinian non-violent activists, including a sixteen year old child and three brothers from one family. Only one of them, who had been arrested by the soldiers in order to pressure his brother to turn himself in, has been released so far.

On the 21st of October, in an act of non violent resistance villagers from Bil’in began to implement the decision of the International Court of Justice that Israel’s illegal wall should be dismantled and removed metal posts meant to serve as foundation for the wall on Bil’in land. The Israeli military reacted to this act with arrests and distribution of a text in Arabic warning people not to take part in direct action against the wall. In the Arabic text the army claimed that “every Friday for the last six months, the IDF has allowed the people of the village to conduct non-violent protests against the construction of the wall on their lands”, despite regularly firing on non-violent demonstrators with tear gas and rubber bullets. The text concluded with the threat that “the acts of the people violating the law will disturb your daily lives”.

For the last ten months, Bil’in has launched an ongoing non-violent campaign against the annexation barrier supported by hundreds of Israeli and International activists, and met by violence from the Israeli army. Israel designed the current route of the barrier to annex 60% of Bil’in’s agricultural land, and expand the settlement of Modi’in Elite. Plans for Modi’in Elite’s expansion have yet to be approved by the Israeli government.

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2. More Settler Attacks in Hebron, While Soldiers and Police Watch
October 30th, 2005

by Andrew

At around 1.20pm on Thursday the 27th of October I received a phone call from one of the three internationals who had come to the aid of a Palestinian schoolgirl near Qurtuba School, and who were now under attack from a mob of settlers.

I made my way quickly to the end of Shuhada Street, stopping at the soldiers’ post there. All the buildings immediately beyond this post on the left are the Beit Hadassah settlement buildings. On the right, a narrow stone staircase leads up to a hillside path which leads to Qurtuba School. By this time the three internationals and the Palestinian child had been removed from the area by the police and army.

I stayed on Shuhada Street and began walking with the Palestinians to the end of the street, waiting at the bottom of the stone staircase until they had reached the apparent safety of the hillside path. On one occasion during the next hour four settler children followed me back along Shuhada Street, throwing stones at me. I was also spat at and shoved in the chest by two 18 year old settler males. I was told by the soldiers who were standing on the street that the Israeli Army were unable to ensure my safety.

At 2.30pm I walked with three Palestinian women to the bottom of the staircase, waiting until they had reached the top before I left. Seconds after I turned to leave, I heard several loud crashes and screams from the top of the staircase. I turned to see at least two teenage settler girls who had jumped up from behind a wall next to the path the Palestinian women were now on, throwing bottles and stones at them. The women retreated several metres to the top of the staircase, but were now effectively stranded there as four or five settler men (one of whom was brandishing a power drill) had now approached the bottom of the staircase.

I shouted to the soldiers to do something and went to join the women who were still trapped at the top of the stairs, but out of range of the missiles which continued to fly in their direction. The soldiers remained standing on the street with the settler men.

Five Palestinian kids had now arrived at the bottom of the stairs, and were being prevented from passing by the soldiers and settlers there. As I made my way back down the stairs to join the kids, the settler with the power drill began waving it in the air, shouting. He then charged at the kids, chasing them away. The soldiers continued to stand on the street.

Two police officers then arrived who despite requests to assist the stranded women continued to do nothing for 10 minutes until the settler girls who were throwing the rocks and bottles had left. They then went up to the women to escort them along the path. The soldiers continued to stand on the street.

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3. “The Nonviolent Option” Article about US Tour by Palestinian and Israeli Non-Violent Activists Ayed Morrar and Jonathan Pollack

November 2nd, 2005

“When Pollack arrived, the people of the village said the construction of the wall meant the end of Jayyous..”

By Sonia Nettnin, PalestineChronicle.com

CHICAGO – Palestinian Ayed Morrar and Israeli Jonathan Pollack spoke about the nonviolent, resistance movement against the Israeli military occupation.

On their U.S. tour, Morrar and Pollack talked about the thousands of Palestinians and hundreds of Israelis who have been waging a campaign against Israel’s military occupation and the construction of the wall in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.

“We are asking all the people to reduce our suffering, the terror,” Morrar said. “The killing is the sign of the hopeless and the disappointed but also we ask you…those people who are looking for real peace people between human to human, not peace between slave to master.”

Morrar is from the Palestinian village of Budrus located in the West Bank, northwest of Ramallah. In November 2003, Israeli forces declared over 1200 dunams of Budrus land for construction of the wall. In response, Morrar led the Budrus community in a peaceful campaign of 55 protest demonstrations to save the land from confiscation.

Throughout these protest marches, Israeli forces killed one 17-year-old, injured 300 Palestinians with rubber bullets and rubber-coated, steel bullets, and arrested 33 people. In the end the people served time in prison and the village lost 14 dunums of land. Although Morrar has not committed any violence, he has been shot, wounded and tortured while in an Israeli prison for seven years.

“We choose the nonviolent way,” he said. “We are against killing from both sides.”

Morrar and Pollack showed footage of protests that took place at Zbuba, Beit Likia, Budrus, and Biddu. In every protest, the demonstrators did not have any weapons. They stood by olive trees allegedly slated to be uprooted for the wall. Israeli soldiers threw tear gas grenades at the demonstrators. When the people ran from the white smoke, the soldiers stood behind trees and fired at the people with semi-automatic weapons. In some instances, they shoved, kicked, clubbed, and pulled at some of the protestors. When it appeared two soldiers were going to kick a Palestinian man in the head, two Palestinian women rushed their bodies on soldiers. From the demonstrators’ point of view they were defending their agricultural land – their means for survival – with their lives.

During a demonstration in Biddu, an ambulance came to retrieve injured people. Suddenly, an M-16 projectile landed in the front of the ambulance and tear gas exploded. The injured and the paramedics rushed out of the ambulance’s back doors and ran away.

Pollack explained that it was not an isolated incident and in many cases the paramedics are targeted by Israeli forces. “The more experience you have the scarier it gets,” he said. “It’s like some ritual you’re going to march down the village and you’re going to be shot at.”

In 2002, several months after the beginning of the wall’s construction Pollack began participating in demonstrations to show Israeli-support of Palestinian-led campaigns. Thus far, he has participated in over 200 West Bank protests and he has mobilized hundreds of Israelis to join the nonviolent, resistance movement. He has served time in prison for his prominent role in mobilizing the resistance.

“It was clear to me that segregation that building a wall is no sort of solution,” he said. “I used to frequent the West Bank the extent it’s hurting the Palestinians and civil society in every day life…no one was thinking it was building on Palestinian land.”

In December 2002 Pollack visited the village of Jayyous, where 75 per cent of Palestinian farmland was on the Israeli side of the wall. “I was shocked I was completely amazed because who knew it was absolutely contradictive to what we were taught about this wall.”

No More Food

When Pollack arrived in Jayyous, the people of the village said the construction of the wall meant the end of Jayyous. The food would be gone, they told him. Without access to their farmland and the nine groundwater wells to irrigate their farmland approximately 300 families could not irrigate and harvest their olive and citrus groves. Thousands of trees died of thirst.

Throughout 20 demonstrations in Jayyous people tried to stop the bulldozers with their own bodies. Throughout the West Bank nine people have died in protests.

For Pollack and other Israeli protestors, it was the first time they moved from protest to resistance. Instead of holding a sign in front of Israel’s Ministry of Defense the Israeli activists were in the West Bank with Palestinians, trying to save Palestinian land from destruction and confiscation. “It was the first opportunities for us as Israeli activist to create relationship with Palestinians that can overcome based on solidarity, not normalizing relations under occupation,” he said.

Eventually the protests in Mas’ha stopped because of overwhelming violence. One Israeli, Gil Nama’ati was seriously wounded in Mas’ha and he nearly died.

On December 27, 2003 media covered the demonstration in Mas’ha that showed Israelis, Palestinians and international activists standing together. According to Pollack, that day marked the eruption of the struggle in almost every Palestinian village there was construction of the wall.

Pollack shared that the wall is 385 miles long and snakes deep into the West Bank. Construction of the wall and Israeli settlements disregards recognition of the 1967 borders established by international law. Almost 500,000 Palestinians in 92 communities are affected by the wall directly. People experience restricted movement because they have to have permits to travel through checkpoints. For example in the village of Qaffin, which has a population of 8000 – 9000 people, only 20 people have permits.

In 50 communities approximately 244,000 people live on the Palestinian side of the wall, but they are surrounded by the wall on three sides. In the city of Qalqilya there was a population of 50,000 – 60,000 people, and an unemployment rate of 18 per cent. Now, 10,000 people have left Qalqilya. There is one gate in and out of the town and Israeli soldiers lock the gate at sunset.

In May 2005, Israeli forces closed Jayyous’ gate 25 for several days. Palestinian farmers worried their trees and crops would die from lack of irrigation. Eventually, Israeli forces reopened gate 25, but the Palestinian farmers needed permits for their farming equipment. They spent the summer purchasing water and transporting it with water trucks to irrigate their farmland. When they harvested their crops, Israeli forces prevented farmers from traveling to larger municipalities, where they could sell their crops in city markets. For the farmers who had permits the travel times between checkpoints caused crops to perish by the time they reached their destination. As a result, most tomatoes and lemons “dropped to the ground,” and the farmers gave them to local villagers for free.

The Olive Tree

“The Palestinian life live strongly to the olive tree,” Morrar said. “The Palestinian people believe olive tree is holy tree as written in the Qur’an and the holy Bible for Christians the holy Torah the holy book of the Jews.”

According to Morrar Palestinian culture teaches that any person who uproots an olive tree will be d—– twenty times. Although Palestinians have planted hundreds of thousands of Palestinian trees the Israeli settlements and the wall have uprooted hundreds of thousands also. The oldest olive tree is in Jenin, a village in the West Bank, and it is 5,000 years-old.

Near Budrus is a church that has olive trees in front of it over 2,000 years-old. Morrar said that as a child Jesus played under these trees.

When trees are uprooted, people are torn with agony and despair because the trees are an integral part of their lives. For these reasons, the people continue in their struggle against the occupation.

“There’s no price on freedom,” Pollack said. “We tried to give a new meaning to this phrase. Freedom and equality…we’re going to fight for our freedom and other peoples’ freedom and nothing they can do deter us.”

Morrar talked about Muslim women and how the West perceives that Palestinian women have no rights. “We discovered that the women don’t want to stay in the kitchen to wait for the heroes to come back from the battle…we just open the doors heroes we discover many heroes in Budrus.” As prominent figures in the nonviolent struggle against Israel’s military occupation, Morrar and Pollack are friends also.

Although Morrar described his command of the English language as meek, he said: “I still believe by the law which Martin Luther King spoke he spoke the rights cannot be given but taken… our aim is freedom as any people in the world freedom from the occupation… we are human and we have right to struggle to achieve the freedom.”

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4. Round-up of Recent Events in Qawawis

November 2nd, 2005

ISM volunteers have been maintaining a presence as Human Rights Observers (HROs) in the tiny Palestinian village of Qawawis (population approx. fifteen), as requested by locals. The vunerable village is often subject to attack and harrassment from nearby Israeli settlers. The following is a brief summary of recent events.

On the 11 of October at 16:35, a car on the settler-only road stoped and a settler took a photo of a villager. At 16:49 an army truck stoped and three soldiers got out. They talked to shepherd and told a HRO that the man had been too close to the settler road.

On the 14th of October at 08:52 an army truck drove into the village via a settler road and approached two shepherds. When a HRO approached the truck with the shepherds a soldier told him to back off because he wanted to talk to the shepherd alone. It seemed that he told the shepherd he is too close to the road and to go nearer the olive trees. The soldier drove away calling the HRO a “fucking faggot”. At 16:00 two army trucks were observed parked on the settler road. After a while they drove off without interfering

On the 15th of October at 07:50 an army truck stoped near a Palestinian shepherd grazing his flock nearby the settler road. A soldier gots out and seems to explain to the shepherd he is too close to the road. A HRO was told “you know they shouldn’t be here?”. The HRO replied that he did not know that. At 10:15 two Israelis drove into village (car licence number was noted). They said they were from a kibbutz and talked to the villagers and the two HROs. They claimed to be organising a tour of the area for their kibbutz. HROs advised that it was not a good idea, as the villagers would think they are settlers. One said “don’t worry, we don’t like the settlers either” and gave the villagers a sack of carrots from “our factory”. One spoke good Arabic and told a villager they had been moved out of Gaza – which would make them settlers too. Their story did not seem to add up. At 13:45 three settlers all of approx. 18 – 20 years of age came into the village. Villagers and two HROs approached them and asked what they were doing. They did not reply and walked around the village in silence. One jumped onto a wall and looked into a garden. At 13:47 one HRO reported the harrassment to the Kyiyat Arba settlement Police. They promised to send first the army and then the police. A few minutes later the settlers left. They were video taped. No military or police ever arrived.

On the 17th of October between 06:00 amd 08:30, several military and police vehicles were observed nearby while shepherds were grazing their flock. Between 10:50 and 11:15 at least 150 cars and 5 busses were obseved heading to Susya settlement. Between 11:00 and 13:00 a watch was kept on the road but no settlers approached.

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5. Prisoner Solidarity and Anti-Wall Protest to Continue in Bil’in on Friday in the Face of Continued Military Suppression

November 2nd, 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

This Friday at 12:00 pm the villagers of Bil’in together with Israeli and International supporters will hold another creative non-violent march to the construction site of the Apartheid Barrier. The main theme of this week’s demonstration will be prisoner solidarity. Due to the recent night-time raids by the Israeli military, seventeen non-violent protestors from the village currently remain in Israeli detention. These arrestees are being accused by the Israeli authorities of damaging the foundations of the barrier and throwing stones.

Over the past eleven days, the Israeli military has conducted a series of arrest raids during the night in Bil’in. Going house to house, they have been rounding up activists known to participate in the non-violent demonstrations, keeping the entire village sleepless and distressed in the process. International Human Rights Observers last Monday night witnessed and filmed the illegal (under Israeli law) use of a Palestinian civilian as a “human shield” by the Israeli military (footage available upon request). One on occasion, the Israeli military distributed a leaflet in Arabic warning the villagers that although they have “allowed the people of the village to conduct non-violent protests against the construction of the wall on their lands” they consider the damaging of the barrier “violence against security property” and warned them that “the daily lives of the villagers will be disrupted as a result of such acts”.

Among the Palestinian non-violent activists arrested are a 14 year old child, a 16 year old child and three brothers from one family. Only one of those arrested -who was taken by the soldiers in order to pressure his brother to turn himself in- has been released so far. Mohammed alKatib, a member of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Bil’in said: “they go after the young and vulnerable in order to intimidate them into giving information about other activists in the village”.

In response to the latest invasion on Monday night, Bil’in residents together with a few Israeli and International volunteers again poured out of their houses and confronted the military, singing and chanting. The Israeli force subsequently withdrew from the village.

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For more reports, journals and action alerts visit the ISM website at
www.palsolidarity.org

Please consider supporting the International Solidarity Movement’s
work with a financial contribution. You may donate securely through
our website at www.palsolidarity.org