Tag: Ni’lin - Page 39 - International Solidarity Movement

Israeli forces shoot young Palestinian girl in Ni’lin

For Immediate Release:

Summer Amira was shot with live ammunition by Israeli forces

4:30pm, 15 May 2009: A 12-year old girl has been shot with 0.22 calibre live ammunition in Ni’lin

Summer Amira, was shot by Israeli forces as she was standing on the roof of her home. Amira was shot in her lower arm, near her elbow around 4:30pm.

“Summer and I were standing on the roof watching soldiers enter our village. Summer was standing behind me, leaning against a pole and the bullet flew past my head and hit her arm. The soldier was aiming at us. Two weeks ago, my other sister, Raja, was injured in the leg with a sound grenade when the army tried to occupy a home to shoot at demonstrators. – Fatma Amira (14), Summer’s sister.

In total, 27 persons have been shot by Israeli forces with live ammunition in Ni’lin.

The 22-calibre live bullet, fired from the Rutger rifle, was reintroduced in January 2009, despite military previous orders to stop its use in 2001.

According to B’tselem,

In 2001, Maj.-Gen. Menachem Finkelstein, then judge advocate general, ordered that use of the Ruger rifle be stopped. The decision followed the killing of several children in the Gaza Strip by Ruger-rifle fire, and an order by OC Central Command to cease using the rifle, which was given after finding that soldiers often used it without justification against demonstrators. On 27 December 2001, Ha’aretz quoted a senior military official as saying that “the mistake was that the Ruger came to be seen as a means to disperse demonstrators, contrary to its original designation as a weapon like any other.”
On 10 January 2009, following the renewed use of the Ruger in demonstrations, Ha’aretz reported the comments of an “IDF official”, who said that the Ruger causes less harm, and is less lethal, than “rubber bullets.”

Israeli occupation forces have murdered four Ni’lin residents during demonstrations against the confiscation of their land and critically injured one international solidarity activist.

Ahmed Mousa (10) was shot in the forehead with live ammunition on 29 July 2008. The following day, Yousef Amira (17) was shot twice with rubber-coated steel bullets, leaving him brain dead. He died a week later on 4 August 2008. Arafat Rateb Khawaje (22), was the third Ni’lin resident to be killed by Israeli forces. He was shot in the back with live ammunition on 28 December 2008. That same day, Mohammed Khawaje (20), was shot in the head with live ammunition, leaving him brain dead. He died three days in a Ramallah hospital. Tristan Anderson (37), an American citizen, was shot with a high velocity tear gas projectile on 13 March 2009 and is currently in critical condition. In total, 19 persons have been shot by Israeli forces with live ammunition.

Since May 2008, residents of Ni’lin village have been demonstrating against construction of the Apartheid Wall. Despite being deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004, the occupation continues to build a Wall, further annexing Palestinian land.

Ni’lin will lose approximately 2500 dunums of agricultural land when the construction of the Wall is completed. Ni’lin consisted of 57,000 dunums in 1948, reduced to 33,000 dunums in 1967, currently is 10,000 dunums and will be 7,500 dunums after construction of the Wall.

Israeli forces suppress Ni’lin demonstration

8 May 2009

Construction site of the Apartheid Wall in Ni'lin — construction site of the Apartheid Wall in Ni'lin

Before the start of the weekly Friday demonstration against the Apartheid Wall in Ni’lin, international solidarity activists visited homes that Israeli forces occupied last Friday. As soldiers were already present in the olive groves of Ni’lin, the internationals stayed at the homes to deter another attempt by the Israeli army to occupy their homes.

Around 100 demonstrators gathered, accompanied by international and Israeli solidarity activists, to march against the construction of the Apartheid Wall on Ni’lin’s land. Demonstrators reached the construction site and were able to damage a part of the illegal Wall. Then protestors were pushed back into the village when Israeli forces opened fire with numerous tear-gas canisters.

The protest continued as demonstrators were pushed back, and the young men from the village responded to the army violence by throwing stones. Israeli forces occupied a rooftop next to the outskirts of the olive groves to shoot at the protestors.

Israeli forces used tear-gas canisters, sound bombs and live ammunition against the protest. The demonstration continued until 5.30pm. Seventeen people were badly enough injured by the tear-gas to require medical treatment. One young man lost the tip of his finger after he was shot by a canister.

The Israeli soldiers came back to the field, close to the houses in the village, around 7pm. Residents went out to protest against their presence on their lands for an hour.

Israeli occupation forces have murdered four Ni’lin residents during demonstrations against the confiscation of their land and critically injured one international solidarity activist.

Ahmed Mousa (10) was shot in the forehead with live ammunition on 29 July 2008. The following day, Yousef Amira (17) was shot twice with rubber-coated steel bullets, leaving him brain dead. He died a week later on 4 August 2008. Arafat Rateb Khawaje (22), was the third Ni’lin resident to be killed by Israeli forces. He was shot in the back with live ammunition on 28 December 2008. That same day, Mohammed Khawaje (20), was shot in the head with live ammunition, leaving him brain dead. He died three days in a Ramallah hospital. Tristan Anderson (37), an American citizen, was shot with a high velocity tear gas projectile on 13 March 2009 and is currently in critical condition. In total, 26 persons have been shot by Israeli forces with live ammunition.

Misuse of firearms suspected in Ni’lin

Aviad Glickman | YNet News

4 May 2009

Deputy State Prosecutor Yehoshua Lamberger has ordered the police to update protocols pertaining to the use of crowd control measures in demonstration dispersals, Ynet learned Monday.

The order followed several cases in which demonstrators suffered injuries by gas and smoke grenade fire. The nature of the injuries suggested a possible misuse of firearms and crowd control measures by security forces.

Lamberger said that even if the situations at hand called for the use of gas and smoke grenade, aiming them at the physical person of the rioters was wrong.

He cited four relevant cases from the past several months, which resulted in Police Internal Affairs Bureau (IAB) investigations against the officers involved.

The four cases pertained to a 2008 riot in the town of Naalin, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, during which a Palestinian demonstrator was shot, and two 2009 riots which left a Spanish reported, a US citizen and one Israeli seriously wounded.

Immediately following the incidents, the deputy state prosecutor ordered investigations into the possible misuse of crowd control measures by Border Guard officers, and the alleged fire of such measures directly at civilian population.

The results of the probes prompted Lamberger to order all crowd control measures use protocols and procedures be updates, so as to avoid any future reoccurrences.

Israeli forces occupy Ni’lin homes to shoot at demonstrators

1 May 2009

On Friday, 1 May 2009 at 11.15am, an hour before the weekly Friday demonstration against the Apartheid Wall begins, Israeli forces entered the village of Ni’lin through the fields. Soldiers attempted to forcefully occupy two homes, for use as shooting posts. During their attempt, a 10 year old girl was injured by a sound grenade thrown near her leg as soldiers tried to enter her home. Another 22 individuals were injured during the demonstration; 4 were shot with rubber coated steel bullets, 4 were hit by tear-gas canisters and 12 suffered from serious tear-gas inhalation and had to be treated by medics.

Israeli forces tried to enter the family home of Ahmed and Sami Amireh. Only the women and children were present in the home, when 3 soldiers entered through their front gate. “They wear bringing water and food” said one of the women in the family “I asked them what they wear doing in our garden and they said they wanted to stay on our roof the whole day” she explained.

When the family refused to let the soldiers inside the house, they called their commander and another seven soldiers came to the house. Simultaneously, many people from the neighbouring houses came to help the family prevent the soldiers from entering. Together they blocked the door of the house and managed to stop the soldiers from entering. Trying to scatter the blockade, the army threw sound grenades directly at those in front of the home, injuring 10 year-old Raja Ibrahim Amireh. She had to be taken to the local clinic for treatment.

Saeeb Khawaja trying to get soldiers to leave his family home

As the soldiers were leaving they threw several tear-gas grenades into the garden of the home. The army proceeded to occupy another home, belonging to an elderly couple, Azmi and Maysam Khawaja. Three soldiers forced their way unto the Khawaja roof, preparing to shoot at demonstrators. Together with several international solidarity activists, the son of the family, Saeeb Khawaja, came to the house and managed to get unto the roof. Instead of leaving, more soldiers arrived; ten soldiers were firing tear-gas into the village from the roof. The soldiers left 30 minutes later, after attacking Saeeb and the others with sound grenades.

The prayer before the demonstration had to take place in the centre of the village, as the presence of Israeli soldiers in Ni’lin’s olive groves prevented prayer in the fields. Following the prayer, the protestors marched along the main street to reach a road leading to the fields. The ary began to shoot tear-gas at demonstrators as they were marching, causing many to return to the village and several to throw stones at the soldiers. Soldiers proceeded to use tactics in violation of Israeli firing regulations, as they were shooting tear-gas canisters directly at protestors and houses.

At approximately 3pm, a fire truck had to be called for after the army started a fire on a big tree next to a house complex. During the coming hour the demonstration moved from inside the village to the fields where it ended at 4.30 pm. When the protesters headed back into the village, soldiers fired a 0.22 live calibre at them, but missed.

Israeli occupation forces have murdered four Ni’lin residents during demonstrations against the confiscation of their land and critically injured one international solidarity activist.

Ahmed Mousa (10) was shot in the forehead with live ammunition on 29 July 2008. The following day, Yousef Amira (17) was shot twice with rubber-coated steel bullets, leaving him brain dead. He died a week later on 4 August 2008. Arafat Rateb Khawaje (22), was the third Ni’lin resident to be killed by Israeli forces. He was shot in the back with live ammunition on 28 December 2008. That same day, Mohammed Khawaje (20), was shot in the head with live ammunition, leaving him brain dead. He died three days in a Ramallah hospital. Tristan Anderson (37), an American citizen, was shot with a high velocity tear gas projectile on 13 March 2009 and is currently in critical condition. In total, 26 persons have been shot by Israeli forces with live ammunition.

Palestine’s Holocaust museum

Dania Yousef | Al Jazeera

30 April 2009

Musa says Palestinians feel sorrow for the Holocaust, but question why they are being punished

In a small anonymous home in the West Bank, a Palestinian academic has set up a project which is almost unheard of in the Occupied Territories.

Hassan Musa is the curator of a museum exhibition dedicated to the Jewish Holocaust in Europe.

The cracked white walls of this makeshift museum in the village of Ni’lin are covered from floor to ceiling with images of people forced out of their homes, tortured, imprisoned, starved and murdered.

In addition to the pictures depicting the Nazi brutality against Jews in Europe, there are also images of the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe) following the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 and the violence in Palestine since.

On one wall, there is a picture of a scared Jewish boy holding up his hands as Nazi soldiers look on; the caption reads: “Make your final account with Hitler and the Nazi Germans, not with the Palestinians.”

On an adjacent wall there are photos of dead children, demolished homes and women screaming during the Israeli war on Gaza in January.

Musa, who is also a member of Ni’lin’s Popular Committee Against the Wall, says pictures of the atrocities committed against both peoples were strategically placed side-by-side to not only reflect the suffering of both and help Israelis and Palestinians better understand each other, but also to demonstrate how victims of one conflict can become the harbinger of another.

“The Palestinians have no connection to the Holocaust in Europe, but unfortunately we are paying the price of a misdeed we did not commit,” he said.

‘Paying’ for the holocaust

Pictures of Jewish victims of the Holocaust are on the museum's walls

In the main room, a large banner sends a direct message to Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, a message: “Why should we Palestinians continue to pay for the Holocaust?”

Musa believes this question is the impetus behind the exhibit, hoping it will challenge the international community on what is happening between Israelis and Palestinians.

“The world is shamefully silent about what is happening in Palestine as a way of expressing their sorrow for the death of six million Jews, but in the meantime, they are supporting the state of occupation,” he said.

Ni’lin has become synonymous with violent weekly clashes between Israeli soldiers and activists protesting against the construction of the ‘Separation Wall’.

The current path of the Wall will annex 10,000 acres of Ni’lin land to Israel, leaving its residents with 30,000 acres; this is a fraction of the 228,000 acres that constituted the village in 1948.

Since then, Ni’lin residents have lost more than 85 per cent of their land to confiscation and illegal settlement building.

People in the village also accused the Israeli military of killing four Ni’lin residents since protests against land confiscation began in May 2008.

Among those was Musa’s 10-year-old nephew, Ahmad, who died on July 29, 2008 from a bullet wound to the head; a number of residents and activists have also been injured in the protests.

In March, Tristan Anderson, a 38-year-old American activist acting as an observer with the International Solidarity Movement, was shot in the head with a high-velocity tear gas canister, leaving him in critical condition.

Understanding the occupier

There are also pictures depicting the Nakba in 1948 and the violence since

It is these events that make the location of the museum all the more significant, Musa says.

In a place where Palestinians struggle to fend off occupation, Musa now offers them an opportunity to empathise with and further understand their occupier.

Israeli, Palestinian and international visitors continue to trickle into the museum, though they are fewer in number than the crowds that gather for the protests.

Remaining optimistic, Musa hopes this endeavour will encourage Israelis to pressure their government to halt the occupation.

“Our message to the Jewish people all over the world is that having been victims of such a brutal genocide, we expect you to be messengers of all the principles of justice, mercy and humanity,” he told Al Jazeera.

According to Musa, reaction from Palestinians, especially those in the village, has been positive; the exhibits are, in many instances, the first images they have ever seen of the Holocaust.

Musa says some Palestinian visitors leave the exhibit feeling sorrow for the Jewish people, but also with the same question posed in the messages plastered across the walls: “Why are they punishing us?”

“I lost my nephew and I know how painful it is for me,” Musa says, “that’s why I don’t want anyone else living on this land to lose their loved ones.”