Tag: Falimia

Palestinians and Internationals Attacked in Falamia

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

[Falami, Qalqilia District] This morning at 8:00 am Palestinian Falami farmers along with a group of approximately 20 International civilians were attacked by hired Israeli Security Personnel as they tried to peacefully protest the destruction of the Palestinian agricultural land.

Israeli government contractors along with Israeli private security overlooked by the Israeli military continued to chop down trees and even managed to destroy 10-15 trees. As the group of internationals peacefully came between the contractors and trees ready to be chopped down the hired security personnel (hired security personnel are usually Israeli soldiers or Israeli police) began to aggressively push volunteers away from the trees. Volunteers who wouldn’t step away from the trees began “hugging” the trees as their bodies were being pulled away by the security personnel. Many volunteers had been attacked by the Israeli security and three had sustained minor injuries.

Adam Keller, late 40’s Israeli citizen, a volunteer from the Gush Shalom Organization was attacked and kicked by the security personnel and was almost cut in half by a chainsaw as he hugged the tree while the contractor was chopping the tree.

Tom Dale, 18 year old British citizen was also attacked by the security personnel as he stood chatting with a group of volunteers. Tom was also beaten and kicked as the Israeli military stood by and watched and sustained bruises on his body.

Emily Winkelstein, 27 years old and a U.S. citizen sustained scratches on her body as she was being dragged away.

Heidi Niggeman, 29 years old a German citizen was beaten and punched in the stomach as she tried to stop a contractor/worker from Chopping down a tree with a chainsaw.

Dan O’ Reilly-Rowe, 25 years old Australian/ American was kicked in the stomach and attacked repeatedly by the security personnel as he held on to save the tree from being destroyed. Dan was nailed to the ground 5-6 times by the security men and is suffering from a twisted ankle.

Yesterday and today Palestinian farmers and internationals have been partially successful in delaying any more destruction of their land.

Tomorrow morning November 5, 2002 at 8:00 AM Palestinian farmers and International volunteers will again sit on the land. The French Ambassador along with members of the Israeli Parliament will accompany the Palestinian farmers in a joint attempt to stop the Israeli destruction of Palestinian land.

Photos and video footage of today’s attacks available by calling below.

For more information contact:

Heidi Niggeman: tel. 067-365-669
Huwaidaa Shapiro: tel. 067-473-308
Osama Qashoo’: tel. 052-225-703

ISM OFFICE: tel. 02-277-4602

Celebrating the Sabbath

By Jennifer

Today I came as close as I may ever be to attending an Islamic prayer service with about 1,500 worshiping farmers.

This morning I spent at the small village of Falimia where our small band of 4 international volunteers had been invited back to the community where we had been 2 days earlier, walking through rich, fertile farmland, past rows and rows of greenhouses, and among orchards of fruit-laden olive/orange/lemon trees. The very land that the Israeli military has begun to confiscate and plow under. That day, we had walked along the red spray-painted numbers, marked by surveyors where the construction will take place. Marks appeared on rocks as close as 3 meters from people’s homes, on the trunks of ancient olive trees and the poles and tarps of industrial-sized greenhouses. And the drinking water beneath the ground would also fall under the ever expanding Israeli Occupation.

Today, we were present to witness the villagers’ demonstration of commitment to their land and homes. For nearly 2 hours, the men and boys of the surrounding villages came here to worship, not in the mosque but in the fields among their crops. It was an incredibly powerful sight: young children and cane-supported old men, all farmers, seated on the land cultivated by their fathers and their fathers’ fathers’ and their fathers’ fathers’ fathers and on and on. The past and the future together to pray for peace and for assistance from the only resource currently available to them. I watched from the shade of a fruit tree as the men and boys one-by-one washed their hands, their faces and their feet from water of an irrigation faucet. They then carefully slipped their sandles on and walked to a place in the fallow field, spread their prayer mat, removed their shoes and sat silently, listening to the songs of worship. It was an incredibly powerful act of nonviolent resistance and of their refusal of the Israeli confiscation.

At the end of the service, several of them were interviewed by a television reporter and I had my first appearance on mass media television. Regrettably, I doubt this story will reach Israel or the United States. But for today, the villagers thanked us for being with them, for witnessing their struggle, and joining our voices with their prayers in breaking the silence.