The villages around Nablus have recently seen a rise in demonstrations against roadblocks. In Sarra, and now in Qusin, people are standing up to the bars and cages the Israeli army has erected around the villages. It has not been easy: people have been arrested, gassed, and shot.
Despite this, the villagers of Qusin refuse to give in to this assault on non-violent protest. Villagers from Qusin along with Israeli and international activists will meet at the village mosque, in Qusin, before 12 noon. They will leave after the noon prayer and demonstrate at the site of the roadblock. Also, following a recent victory in their own battle in the Israeli High Court, the Popular Committe Against the Wall in Bil’in and other Palestinian activists from that village will join the Qusin struggle this week.
The roadblock in Qusin turns a simple five minute trip to Nablus into nearly an hour’s journey. This situation is mirrored in the villages around.
Following demonstrations in the nearby village of Sarra the military has invaded, shooting at water tanks and shop fronts, entering houses and harassing the people inside, including stealing their possessions.
The Israeli army has also responded to the non-violent demonstrations with extreme levels of violence and repression. Last Saturday, the 15th of September, five Israelis, six internationals, and two Palestinians were taken prisoner after a non-violent demonstration against the roadblock in the village. Five Palestinians and two internationals were injured from the soldier’s brutality. One of the internationals had the end of her finger shattered from a rubber bullet.
For more information on the Sept. 15 demo., including video see here:
https://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2007/09/15/urgent-media-alert-demonstrators-shot-and-arrested-in-qusin/
Or contact the ISM Media Office at:
02 2971824 or 0599943157
During the holy month of Ramadan, when Palestinians are fasting, the Israeli army decided to close Hawarra checkpoint in Nablus. At 11am two international Human Rights Workers (HRWs) tried to leave Nablus through the Hawarra checkpoint, and found crowds of people held waiting to get home.
The Palestinians waited peacefully hoping that the checkpoint would be opened soon. As they waited the soldiers got more aggressive towards the Palestinians, who were stuck with no where to go. HRWs tried to film the situation but were met with hostility, one soldier said, “you want me to shoot them?”
The Palestinians were repeatedly harassed by the army, with one soldier threatening to throw a grenade into the crowed as if it was a baseball. HRWs were then chased from the checkpoint and the commander tried to steal the camera from them. Luckily, with some quick thinking and some quick running the camera was smuggled to safety.
Once the soldiers saw they had no chance to retrieve the camera they became very aggressive, saying to one activist, “Now I am going to kill your friend!” Then he ran after the other activist that fled with the camera. In the end no one was hurt and both HRWs escaped, but it must be remembered that earlier that day another Palestinian in Nablus was no so lucky.
The closing of checkpoints throughout the West Bank during Ramadan is just another assault on Muslim Palestinians and Palestinian culture. The Israeli government claimed earlier that they would ease restrictions on Muslims over the age of 50 for journeys throughout the West Bank and into Jerusalem during Ramadan. This is not only proved false by the long waits at checkpoints, but more famously when Mustapha Barghouthi was denied entry four times while trying to reach the Al-Aqsa mosque last Friday.
Saturday, September 15th, at 12pm, international and Israeli activists joined Palestinian activists and villagers in the village of Qusin to protest the system of control imposed upon them by the Israeli army. The region has seen a rise in demonstrations of this sort recently, with roadblock removal demonstrations happening also in the nearby town of Sarra.
There is a road that connects both of these towns, and others, to Nablus, and to the Nablus-Tulkarem road. This road has been deemed usable only by Israelis, it turns what is normally a five minute journey to Nablus into at least one hour. This constitutes daily harassment for people going to work, going to school, or even just visiting family.
People gathered together in the village of Qusin and marched towards the roadblock that prevents them from accessing this road, in Qusin it takes the form of a yellow gate chained shut. Villagers with international and Israeli support rallied at the gate, singing, chanting, and opened it for general use.
After some celebrations at the newly opened gate this non-violent demonstration decided to return to the village, but soldiers from an army base nearby spotted them and ran down the hill, preventing them from going back peaceably to their homes. Soldiers began to push the people gathered there, threatening them all alike. The press were threatened and assaulted as much as the demonstrators, with one journalist saying the commander told him “stop filming or I will break your camera!”. The soldiers did not want any evidence of what was going to happen next.
Tear gas and rubber-coated metal bullets began to shoot off into the crowd, the demonstrators scattered, unable to reach their home and faced with extreme army violence. People ran down a hill into a field, trying to find an alternative way of reaching their village. The army stood on the road, firing more tear gas and rubber-coated metal bullets at moving targets below. Some of the soldiers chased people into the fields, and were seen beating Palestinians. They were also caught pointing their guns at people at point-blank range and threatening to fire.
One international was shot in the hand at a distance of 10 meters by a rubber-coated steel bullet and required medical attention, with blood shooting from her hand “like a geyser” as one witness reported. Under Israel’s own military law, it is illegal to fire rubber coated steel bullets from a distance closer than 40 meters. The soldiers were therefore in direct violation of their own military law when undertaking these actions today. Another international and five Palestinians were also shot but did not need to go to the hospital. While most people had scattered, many international and Israeli observers were on the road asking the military to calm down and use less violence.
After it was clear the demonstration was over, these people were all arrested. In the end six Israeli activists, five international activists, and two Palestinians were arrested. The Palestinians were handcuffed and blindfolded and no information about their status has been confirmed. Three of the international activists and one Israeli are being charged with the false allegation of assaulting an officer while being arrested. Although these claims are entirely baseless lies, journalists were kept away from the scene of the arrest to prevent demonstrators from having proof of their innocence and it will be a case of one person’s word against the other.
***UPDATE*** As of September 19th, all the demonstrators have been released. Those injured and hospitalized have returned to their homes and are recovering. We are still trying to raise money for the Palestinian demonstrators, 8,000 shekels (around 2,000 dollars) are urgently needed to pay for the bail costs for both men. It is extremely important to support the villagers of Qusin who have only begun to wage nonviolent struggle against an illegal and brutal Israeli occupation.
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On Saturday, September 15th, the villagers of Sarra and Qusin, in the Nablus region, are planning in coordination with international Human Rights Workers (HRWs) to hold a demonstration in their region. They are blocked off from a road that leads directly to Nablus by roadblocks. These roadblocks turns a five minute trip to Nablus into nearly an hour. The road they used to use is now used only by soldiers and settlers. This becomes daily harassment, whether a person is going to school, or work, or visiting family, they must go through nearby towns rather than directly to Nablus. They plan to march from their respective towns to a military gate in the middle and hold a joint demonstration there.
This roadblock has been removed twice before, August 20th and 31st. After the first removal, the DCO said they would come the following Saturday to fully remove the roadblock. Not only did they put it back in place, but the army invaded the town, terrorizing villagers through shooting at shop fronts and water tanks, dragging people outside their houses for questioning, and stealing belongings from the people inside.
On August 31st The villagers, together with HRWs, blocked the army from advancing while others removed the roadblock again. It was a glorious day where a village that had spent five years in the cage that is made by roadblocks was finally able to flex its muscles. Later that day however, after the village had peaceably returned to their homes, HRWs witnessed an army bulldozer attempting to replace the roadblock. They climbed onto the one meter squared cement blocks to prevent this from happening, and were arrested. One of them spent a night in and Israeli jail located in an illegal settlement, the other three spent two nights.
This Saturday the village will meet again, with another village joining the struggle. They will not be deterred by Israeli army repression. They will not go quietly into their houses and accept the continued harassment by the Israeli military. They will demonstrate along the military road, and at the military gate, until the DCO removes the roadblock, and leaves the road open for freedom of movement in Occupied Palestine. They are asking for your support! Palestinian, Israeli, and international activists will meet at the mosque in Sarra by 10am.
For more information contact Smith at the ISM Media Office: 0599943157
On the Saturday the 8th of September the Israeli army invaded the home of the Abu Shhab family in Nablus. Twenty soldiers and four vehicles arrived at the house at 15:00 and threw all the inhabitants outside.
When humanitarian and medical workers arrived they were not allowed in the vicinity of the house. An army jeep repeatedly rammed the ambulance when it arrived on the scene. A soldier was heard to say; “do you want me to shoot you” as a humanitarian worker attempted to see what the situation of the family was.
The Israeli army left at 18:00 taking a taxi with them, and leaving the house they had occupied with six broken framed pictures and two broken doors, but without finding anything of significance.
