Tag: Jenin - Page 13 - International Solidarity Movement

Harrasing students in Jenin

by Ash

Early in the morning, I left home with my friends going toward my university (the Arab American University). It’s about 40 minutes from my village. On the way, each one of us told our own story about the other day at Israeli checkpoints.

Last week (other students and I) were heading back home from classes when we were stopped at a checkpoint on a conjunction outside Jenin. While we were waiting in a long line of cars, we ran out of gas, and the driver had no choice but to ask some students to go back to Jenin and bring some gasoline.

The cars were moving very slowly, so we spent almost an hour waiting, then the cars completely stopped moving. Three Israeli soldiers on the other street of the conjunction stopped checking IDs, and instead, the soldiers waved for cars to go back. In our direction, one hummer jeep sat by the side the street with four soldiers in it, also preventing cars from moving.

A few drivers got out and walked towards the soldiers to negotiate and ask why we weren’t allowed to move anymore. One hour later, our driver managed to start the bus again and drove back to Jenin to try anther road.

For the past month, at least in Jenin area, the number of checkpoints had amazingly increased. These checkpoints are not just between two villages to prevent farmers to go to their land or workers to go to their jobs, but are also in front of universities to stop students from getting their education.

Yesterday around 2pm, two military jeeps set up a checkpoint near the gate of my university, preventing all vehicles from moving in both directions. We didn’t have any choice but to walk on foot for 35 minutes to the village of Zababdeh. When I reached the checkpoint, the soldiers were not in fact checking IDs or our bags, which is the usual tactic. So we wondered, “What is this checkpoint for?”

In the last week, many students missed their exams and classes, because they were held for hours at checkpoints or prevented from passing. Last Saturday, I had two exams to do, so I decided to stay with friends in the village of Zababdeh for the weekend (Thursday and Friday) in order to avoid the Israeli checkpoints and not miss any exams.

The Israeli army not only harasses students at checkpoints, but also inside their dormitories. Around 1am, Wednesday night, the Israeli army occupied two student dormitories for more than 8 hours. One of the dorm’s gate was broken using a hammer jeep; apparently no students were there for the weekend.

The Israeli soldiers checked the rooms, while all students from the other dorm were taken outside for questioning. A friend of mine was beaten on the face by one of the Israeli soldiers just because of the area he comes from.

While students were held outside and after checking, a volley of shots heard inside the building destroyed some furniture and left holes in the walls. Before the army let the students back to their dorm, the Israeli soldiers fired randomly at the building, then took off.

Jenka’s Journal: The City of Jenin

I woke up two days ago to the news that a Palestinian had blown himself up in Tel Aviv, killing eight Israelis and himself, at the bus station. I thought, as I always do, of the victims…..limbs torn apart, the children crying, ambulances rushing to the scene….so terrible, terrible, terrible…….

It reminded me of a similar scene in Gaza last week, a family bombed in their home by an Israeli air strike….a little girl’s body in pieces, the rest of the family with limbs blown off……

The only difference is: that attack never made the American news.

Israeli writer Gideon Levy wrote a powerful article about it:
http://www.imemc.org/content/view/18108/1/

He says: “The continuing imprisonment of besieged Gaza is precisely the opposite policy that should be applied to serve Israeli interests. The current policy only strengthens support for the Hamas, just like the terror attacks within Israel always strengthen the Israeli right. A nation under siege, its leadership boycotted, will have far more determination and resolve to fight to its last drop of blood. It is impossible to break the spirit of a desperate people. Only a nation that sees a light at the end of its desperation will change its ways.”

As long as there are young men and boys who see no reason for living, and who see no future for themselves in the prison that has been made of their country, there will be bombers willing to give their lives to avenge the injustices they see every day living in Occupied Palestine.

When I saw the picture of the kid who did the bombing yesterday on the television- so young, so terribly young….he looked no more than 16. Then I heard that he was from the city of Jenin. The irony just struck me, as the words of a song by folk singer David Rovics entered my head….it is a song, ironically enough, about a suicide bomber from the city of Jenin — the site of a massive Israeli assault that lasted two months in March and April of 2002, and resulted in nearly 800 deaths, and the complete flattening of a vast portion of the city. Here are the lyrics of the song:

Jenin
——-
Oh, child, what will you remember
When you recall your sixteenth year
The horrid sound of helicopter gunships
The rumble of the tanks as they drew near

As the world went about it’s business
And I burned another tank of gasoline
The Dow Jones lost a couple points that day
While you were crying in the City of Jenin

Did they even give your parents warning
Before they blew the windows out with shells
While you hid inside the high school basement
Amidst the ringing of church bells

As you watched your teacher crumble by the doorway
And in England they were toasting to the Queen
You were so far from the thoughts of so many
Huddled in the City of Jenin

Were you thinking of the taunting of the soldiers
Or of the shit they smeared upon the walls
Were you thinking of your cousin after torture
Or Tel Aviv and it’s glittering shopping malls

When the fat men in their mansions say that you don’t want peace
Did you wonder what they mean
As you sat amidst the stench inside the darkness
In the shattered City of Jenin

What went through your mind on that day
At the site of your mother’s vacant eyes
As she lay still among the rubble
Beneath the blue Middle Eastern skies

As you stood upon this bulldozed building
Beside the settlements and their hills so green
As your tears gave way to grim determination
Among the ruins of the City of Jenin

And why should anybody wonder
As you stepped on board
The crowded bus across the Green Line
And you reached inside your jacket for the cord

Were you thinking of your neighbors buried bodies
As you made the stage for this scene
As you set off the explosives that were strapped around your waist
Were you thinking of the City of Jenin

————-
you can listen to the song here:
http://www.soundclick.com/util/DownloadSong.cfm?ID=756970&ref=2
————-

Land Day Actions

Since 1976 Land Day is marked by Palestinians on the 30th of March to protest against the grabbing of Palestinian lands by Israel.

This year, thousands of Palestinians, along with Israeli and international activists held a series of large-scale peaceful protests against the ongoing occupation and continued theft of Palestinian land by Israel.

Demonstrations took place in the villages of Beit Sira (Ramallah area), Zabda (Jenin area), Rafat (Salfit area) and Tulkarm city (Tulkarm area) with marches alongside the annexation barrier where local residents attempted to plant olive trees.

In Beit Sira, about 400 or 500 demonstrators marched down to the village land where they were met by a large presence of Israeli soldiers blocking the path to the area where they wanted to plant olive trees. They were geared up with riot shields, clubs, rubber-coated metal bullets, tear gas and live round. After roughly a 5 minute stand-off, the soldiers decided to attempt to drive the demonstration away with physical force – beatings and sound bombs. The Palestinians responded to this mostly by running away, though some threw stones. The soldiers then used the stone throwing as an opportunity to open up with rubber-coated bullets, which in turn provoked further stone throwing. By the end of the demonstration, the soldiers had used a lot of their tear gas and some live rounds were heard. An ambulance was directly hit with a tear gas canister. Several minor injuries were inflicted on Palestinians by the soldiers, including one boy who was shot in the head with a rubber bullet.

Thursday’s nonviolent demonstration in Rafat was quickly met by Israeli soldiers and border police jeeps which blocked the main agricultural road leading to the Annexation Wall. Israeli soldiers threw sound bombs to disperse the demonstration which was peacefully walking with Palestinian flags and signs and chanting “No to the Wall” in Arabic. Despite the sound bombs, the demonstrators pushed forward and more sound bombs and few tear gas canisters were thrown directly in the middle of the crowd.

The demonstrators then sat in front of the jeeps and the Palestinians demanded that they be allowed to go to their land. The Israeli military recently declared 300 of the remaining 500 dunam of village lands are in a closed military zone and have restricted access to pasture and olive groves on the east side of the Wall. After the noon prayer in the road, the Palestinians returned to the village.

Recently, Rafat and the adjacent village of Deir Ballut have been the site of demolitions and access restrictions. While the construction of the Apartheid Wall in the area has winded down, the Israeli military have issued demolition orders and restricted access to pasture and olive groves on the east side of the Wall. Bulldozers are flattening part of the hillside for unknown purposes.

In 2003 and 2004 the Salfit region, particularly the villages of Deir Ballut, Azzawiya, Rafat and Mas’ha, was the center of mass actions against the building of the Apartheid Wall. While not stopping the building of the Wall completely, the resistance of the villages resulted in the High Court ordering the re-routing of the wall in mid-2005. Still, Rafat lost all but 500 dunums of its land. Rafat is adjacent to the 27-settlement bloc of Ariel, the largest Israeli settlement network in the West Bank after Greater-Jerusalem. As he campaigned in Ariel last week, Kadima frontrunner Ehud Olmert pledged to supporters that “the Ariel bloc will be an inseparable part of the state of Israel under any situation.”

Thousands of olive trees to be planted in land day demonstrations

On Land Day, Thursday March 30, thousands of Palestinians, along with Israeli and International activists will hold a series of large-scale peaceful protests.

Demonstrations against ongoing Israeli land confiscation have been planned in the villages of Beit Sira (Ramallah area), Zabda (Jenin area), Rafat (Salfit area) and Tulkarem city (Tulkarem area) with marches alongside the annexation barrier where local residents will plant 1000’s of olive trees.

Beit Sira. Protest starts at 12.00 at village council. Since 1967 the village has lost 65% of its land to expanding Israeli settlements. As a symbolic act villagers will march carrying a coffin on their shoulders containing olive tree saplings which will be planted in the confiscated land

Rafat. 10.00am. Meeting in front of village school. 3000 Dunams out of a total land area of 3500 has been isolated from the village by the Annexation Barrier. The Israeli army has announced 300 Dunams of the remaining land are a closed military zone

Zabda. 10.00am March starting west of Yaabad. 6000 villagers are cut off from the West Bank behind the annexation barrier. Many more are excluded from their land by gates open for only 2 hours in the early morning and late evening. Out of 1722 farmers that applied for permission to access their own land 150 were granted permits

Jbara checkpoint. Meeting 10.30 am at the bus station in Tulkarm city for a March and demonstration against the wall, land-grab and collective punishment. Tulkarm has been completely closed for more than five moths as a collective punishment. In addition Many villages including Jbara are isolated by the annexation barrier.

For more information contact:
Beit Sira: Maher Ankawi: 0544-397879

Tulkarm: Abdel Karim Dalbah: 0599836783 or 0545474066
Shrif Shahrori : 0599-370445

General: ISM media office 022970824

Settlers attempt large-scale assault on Palestinian village

Settlers on Wednesday from the illegal Israeli settlement of Sanur near Jenin — due to be evacuated as part of Israel’s “disengagement” plan — attempted to launch an assault on the Palestinian village of Assa’sa, clashing with the Israeli soldiers engaged in the evacuation. The clashes were witnessed by volunteers from the International Solidarity Movement.

Around 6 p.m., a group of about 50 settlers came out onto the road to Assa’sa, and began blocking Palestinian cars. About 10 minutes later, an Israeli army jeep arrived and soldiers told settlers to leave, setting up a checkpoint to allow Palestinian cars to pass. The settlers then began attacking a nearby Palestinian gas station. More jeeps arrived, coming under attack from the settlers, as they attempted to reach the village.

The soldiers tried to stop the settlers, but were overrun by them, and were forced to call for reinforcements. A number of armored personnel carriers arrived with more troops, who stopped settlers from entering the village. The settlers then returned to the settlement. It appeared that a number of settlers were setained by the army, and later on Border Police arrived, presumably to arrest the detainees.

Despite the fact that the Sanur settlers’ 48-hour deadline to leave the settlement passed at midnight last night, it appears that no attempts have been made by the army to evict them. Some soldiers have been seen inside the settlement today, apparently talking and arguing with the settlers, but without seeking to detain or remove them. ISM volunteers estimate that around 350 settlers remain in Sanur.

The mood in Assa’sa is currently one of extreme fear, with the villagers not knowing whether and when the settlers will attack again, and whether the army will be able to stop them. Some villagers are gathering stones to defend themselves, a poor weapon against the heavily-armed settlers, but for the most part, they can do nothing but watch and wait. ISM volunteers remain in Assa’sa, alongside the villagers, and continue to monitor the situation