Tag: Hebron

Successful Land-Access Action in Beit Omar

Sunbula’s Journal: “Settler Brats and Weed Pulling”

20th May: From Jerusalem to Beit Omar, you need to change taxis three times in order to get there, partly because of two Israeli checkpoints. It is a small village outside Hebron (al-Khalil) past Bethlehem. An international presence was needed there today in order to help the farmers farm their land outside the village which is being encroached upon by an illegal settlement. The settlers have been harassing the villagers and attacking them to stop them from working on the land, in order to try and annex more of it. We were received in the house of Ibrahim Abu Marya and his family and then walked with other internationals from the Christian Peacemaker Teams and Israeli anarchists and peace activists to the fields. Army jeeps were driving past us and when we got to the land just in front of the settlement, there were soldiers gathered. I thought they were going to harass us, but they were mostly trying to stop the settler children from coming and provoking us and the villagers. The settler children, some of them probably under 10, were gathered there and cursing at us in Hebrew, shouting such nice things as “Nazis”, “sons of whores” and “Hitler needs help” and giving us middle fingers. This is one of the things I detest most about the settlers – they send their little children to attack Palestinians and peace activists because they know the army can’t and wont do anything against them. Talk about cowardice. The soldiers today seemed rather indifferent to the settler kids and seemed to have a bored “I want to go home” expression on their face, which I don’t blame them for.

We were lucky in that sense that they didn’t help the settlers today. This behavior from settlers is pretty mild compared to what goes on in Hebron city, where the faithful of Meir Kahane, Baruch Goldstein, the Kach and other such nutcases live; they are considered racist and insane even by mainstream Israeli political standards, which is saying something, but they have money and influence in the Israeli establishment and from sections of American Jewish communities, who believe they are helping to settle the land of Greater Israel.

The internationals and Israelis helped pull weeds from the land and just stay there to prevent the settlers from attacking. The army is more likely to restrain them, in fact much more likely, when there are internationals present, which is why the presence of international solidarity activists is so important and why the Israelis harass people at the borders whom they suspect of being activists. The army is less likely to beat and shoot Palestinians at demonstrations when there are international faces present, watching, photographing, recording, and protesting. It was fairly peaceful today overall, which is the way it should be more, especially after the large number of injuries at this Friday’s protest in Bil’in village. It was also fun, everyone was impressed by my Arabic and the village kids surrounded me and kept chatting with me about various things. They also demonstrated their ability to sing, in unison, “we shall overcome” and “we will rock you”, clearly showing their varied and eclectic taste in western music. I also learnt lots of vocabulary relating to nature and plants, which should hopefully be helpful.

I am off to Ramallah tomorrow, leaving Jerusalem, for the ISM office and the training for newly arrived people. Excited to meet people I had befriended last time and my good old first Palestinian friend, Mansour the big joker from Biddu.

Successful Wire Cutting Action in Beit Omar

Today, May 17, two international and one Israeli human rights activists joined a small group of Palestinian farmers in their non-violent action of cutting up 50 meters of a 500 meter long barbed wire fence. A fence the Israeli army illegally had set up the previous day on Palestinian owned land.

Together with the two other international activists I reached Beit Omar early this morning. We met up with Ahmed, one of the owners of the land that was now defaced by army barbwire. We bought some food and water and then went altogether in a car to Ahmed’s fields situated just outside the village of Beit Omar, opposite the farmers university of Arob village. It was a hot morning and we all sat down in the shadow of Ahmed’s grapevine, pear and all kinds of other sorts of trees to eat and he started to tell us the story of his land and the newly set up barbed wire.

He tells us that the land we’re sitting on belongs to him and his family and that the surrounding parts of the field belong to two other families. In total the size of the land of the three families is 6000 square meters and altogether 40 people are living off and depending on the products and the incomes this land is bringing them.

The previous day the army had come and set up a 500-meter long barbed wire fence crossing straight through the bottom part of the lands of the three families. It effectively makes it impossible to enter the field with a tractor and all the farmer equipment necessary for the work. And though it’s possible to get around the fence by foot, even this is a disrupting and unpleasant 500 meters hiking in difficult terrain. Ahmed continues, “It’s spring! We’re soon going to harvest. If we’re not able to work in the fields now and prepare for harvest and then not even be able to do the actual harvesting, 40 people will starve this year!”

When Ahmed asked the army commander, Izik Affasi in charge of the military operation, for a reason why the barbed wire was set up he got the answer that there had been Palestinian kids throwing stones from this land on settler cars on the close by settler bypass road. When Ahmed then asked the commander for papers proving that there was a court decision behind this operation he was told they didn’t have any papers right now but that they would bring him papers the following day.

When we, the internationals, later had the possibility to speak to the commander in question he made it clear that there were no accusations on the landowners or their families of throwing stones. The commander even said he knew that the kids came from another village close by, but then he added that the army still holds the landowners responsible for what ever happens on their land at whatever time.

Whether there had ever been any kids throwing stones from Ahmed’s and the other families’ lands or not we could all agree on three things. First of all there was no legal papers shown to the landowners when the barbed wire was set up, so there was no reason for them to let it stay there. Second of all the stone throwing accusations weren’t directed to the farmers or their families and they should therefore not have to be the ones suffering for it. That’s called collective punishment and is, from what I know, illegal by international law. Thirdly the barbed wire doesn’t, in any way, fill the purpose of keeping stone throwing kids away. It’s perfectly possible to stand either in front or behind the barbed wire and throw stones.

When this was made clear the internationals started to cut up the fence and effectively removed all barbed wire from Ahmed’s land.

At 11 o’clock soldiers showed up and though they were obviously angry, after awhile, they actually started to listen to what the farmers had to say. As showing the soldiers the damage the barbed wire has caused on his groves Haj Mahmoud, one of the neighbor landowners, argued the absurdity of the barbed wire being put in the middle of his land “Why does it have to be here, in the middle of our fields? Put a high wall on the side of the road instead!” To demonstrate Haj Mahmoud picked up a stone from the ground and threw it on the now empty road “Even me, an 80 year old man, can reach the road with a stone from this side of the barbed wire!” A couple of hours of discussions actually made them agree on our arguments and it was decided that all of the remaining barbed wire could be removed and instead a wall will be set up on the side of the road, allowing the farmers full access to their land. No one was arrested.

We’ll have to wait and see if this agreement will be kept to or not.

Canberra Times: “The Other Aussie Heros”

posted in the Canberra Times May 18th

Every Friday for the last fifteen months Palestinian farmers from the West Bank village of Bil’in and their Israeli and international supporters have marched out of the village to reach their lands on the other side of the “Separation Barrier” Israel is building to confiscate 500 acres of their farmland. When they get to within a hundred metres of the barrier, Israeli soldiers and border policemen have attacked them with clubs, rifle butts, tear gas and rubber coated metal bullets.

The large number of Israelis engaged in these demonstrations is a matter of considerable embarrassment for the Israeli government, which insists the barrier is merely a security measure, intended to protect Israel from Palestinian terrorism.

The Palestinians, their Israeli allies, the International Court of Justice and the United Nations, however, reject this claim, noting that only 10% of the 650km barrier is being built along Israel’s border while the rest reaches deep inside the West Bank to annex precious land and water resources which are being taken over by neighbouring Jewish settlements.

Last Friday ten Palestinians and two international protestors were injured in the protest, including Phil Reese, a Sydney man who was shot in the head by a rubber coated metal bullet while filming the demonstration.

The following day Mary Baxter, a 75 year old human rights worker from Melbourne, was pelted with stones to her head and back by a group of teenagers from the Israeli settlement of Tel Rumeida as she accompanied Palestinian children returning home from school in the West Bank town of Hebron.

Reese and Baxter are both volunteers with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) – an organisation of international peace activists who travel to the Occupied Territories to help Palestinians resist occupation and dispossession through non-violent direct action.

Being an ISM volunteer is dangerous work. In 2003 an activist was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer and another was killed when he was shot in the head by an Israeli sniper. Two other Australian activists have been wounded by live ammunition.

Although the Australian government was quick to denounce Hamas for not condemning last month’s suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, it has consistently refused to protest Israeli violence towards Palestinians and Australian peace activists.

This double standard is regrettable because if Hamas is to acquiesce to the international community’s demands that they “renounce violence”, it will have to be offered an alternative strategy for resisting Israel’s occupation and colonisation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. While the militant Palestinian resistance can point to the success of the armed struggle in forcing Israel to withdraw its settlers from the Gaza Strip, no such
successes can be claimed by communities such as Bil’in.

Though for the past 16 months Hamas has scrupulously observed a unilateral Palestinian ceasefire arranged by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, its leaders are acutely aware that they owe their electoral success primarily to the Fateh Party’s disastrous strategy of renouncing violence in favour of the Oslo Peace Process which Israel used as cover to double the number of settlers in the Occupied Territories.

If Hamas is to meet Australian demands that it renounce violence, it is imperative that some form of peace dividend be offered to the Palestinians. At minimum this would mean calling upon Israel to cease confiscating Palestinian land and supporting the work of Australians like Reese and Baxter who daily risk life and limb to uphold international law and the human rights of the Palestinian people.

Encouraging Palestinian restraint, however, does not seem to be a priority in Australian politics. In his address to the Australian Parliament Tony Blair stated that the international community must redouble its efforts to find a solution to the conflict involving a secure state of Israel and a viable, independent Palestinian state. When Greens Senator Kerry Nettle proposed a motion endorsing his statement, government and opposition senators joined forces to defeat it.

According to a report by the Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, B’Tselem, Israel has created a regime of separation in the Occupied Territories “applying two separate systems of law in the same area and basing the rights of individuals on their nationality.”The report concludes that: “This system is the only one of its kind in the world and is reminiscent of the distasteful regimes of the past, such as the apartheid regime of South Africa.”

In the 1980s the Australian government understood that the key to peace in South Africa was to support progressive forces in the country that were working to end apartheid.

Today Australian politicians seem to believe that peace in the Middle East can be separated from issues of occupation and human rights.

Perhaps it is time to reconsider this assumption?

Michael Shaik is a former International Solidarity Movement Coordinator and a member of Australians for Justice and Peace in Palestine.

Three Non-Violent Demonstrations this Weekend: Bil’in, Beit Omar, Shofat Camp

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

This Friday, the Palestinian villages of Bil’in and Shofat refugee camp, near Jerusalem, will all hold non-violent demonstrations against the Israeli occupation. Beit Omar will hold their demonstration on Saturday, not Friday as stated in a previous release. In Bil’in the demonstration is against the apartheid barrier, in Beit Omar against an Israelis only-road, and in Shofat camp against restrictions on freedom of religious worship.

In Bil’in, the brutality of the Israeli soldiers in last weeks demonstration has not stopped the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements from planning another non-violent demonstration for this Friday, May 19, 2006. Once again Israeli and international peace activists will come to show their support for the people of Bil’in. The demonstration will try to draw attention to the illegal settlements and their continuous development, a reality that their lawyer, Michael Sfard, is also trying to draw out in their court case.

The route of the wall in Bil’in is designed to annex the settlement of Modi’in Elite and it’s outpost, Matityahu Mizrah, to Israel along with the land belonging to Bil’in so that these illegal settlements can continue to grow. Bil’in village council has filed three petitions to the Israeli High Court to remove the wall from their lands, stop the construction of Matityahu East, and annul the procedures through which the State took their lands unlawfully 15 years ago.

In the last hearing, which took place May 14, 2006, the Bil’in village council’s lawyer, Michael Sfard, argued that the wall is not designed to protect people, but rather to protect the investment of real estate sharks and to accommodate the expansion of settlements.

The court has not released any decisions and the people of Bil’in will continue to practice non-violence in these demonstrations in order to draw attention to their struggle.

For more information call:
Abdullah 0547-258-210
Mohammed 0545-804-830
ISM media office 02-2971824

Palestinian Village to Hold Demonstration Against Israeli Land-Grab

IMPORTANT: This action will take place on SATURDAY and NOT on Friday as was incorrectly mentioned in a previous version of this press release.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

At 9 am this Saturday villagers from Beit Omar in the Hebron region of the West Bank, joined by Israeli and international supporters, will hold a non-violent demonstration against the “security” road that surrounds the illegal Israeli settlement of Karmi Zur.

Although the settlement is built on agricultural land that belongs to the village, the villagers are prevented from crossing the military road by the occupying Israeli army. Since 1984, 200 dunams of the village’s land has been occupied by the settlement, which continues growing to this day.

The demonstrators will attempt to non-violently cross the road and access the village land. They will bring tractors and other equipment and attempt to work their land.

For more information contact:

Mussa Abu Marya: 054 593 8925