Tag: Ni’lin - Page 5 - International Solidarity Movement

Day of Rage: commemorating Nakba day in Ni’lin

15th May 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Al Khalil Team | Ni’lin, Occupied Palestine

On Friday 15th May 2015, hundreds of Palestinians from all over the West Bank traveled to Ni’lin for a mass protest commemorating the 1948 Nakba (‘catastrophe’). The local villagers were joined by a large amount of other Palestinian protesters, as well as Israeli and international solidarity activists. There was a high level of media presence. The Israeli occupation forces responded to the peaceful protesters by firing hundreds of tear gas canisters and an excessive number of rubber coated steel bullets. Roughly 12 people were injured, as well as many suffering from tear gas inhalation. Protesters, as well as journalists, were continuously targeted with rubber coated steel bullets.

Protestors in Ni'lin running away from tear gas — Protestors in Ni’lin running away from tear gas – *photo by Haytham Khatib*

After arriving in Ni’lin, ISM activists joined Palestinian, Israeli and other international protesters to mark the 67th anniversary of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine that started in 1948. The group of roughly 500 people was made up of all ages, including three generations of one local family who have all been active in supporting their community against the Israeli annexation of their land.

The march began after the midday prayer, which took place in the olive groves at the edge of the village, overlooking the segregation wall. Protesters marched towards the wall chanting loudly and waving Palestine and Nakba Day flags. The completely peaceful march was soon halted by Israeli forces who fired tens of tear gas canisters over the entire group using the ‘venom’ (a machine that can shoot 30 canisters at once). The group was forced to disperse but continued to chant and attempted to reach the wall. The occupation forces responded by continuously firing tear gas over the olive groves, reaching hundreds of canisters. The heat from the metal canisters set the dry grass a light, which quickly spread around the olive trees.

Midday prayer in NI'lin — Midday prayer in Ni’lin

For local Palestinians, marching towards the wall is a symbolic protest against the annexation of their land. Construction of the wall began in 2008 and cut off Ni’lin residents from a large portion of their agricultural land. However, protesters have previously faced extreme violence from the Israeli forces resulting in serious injuries and death. The death of a 9 year old child from Ni’lin being one of the most brutal outcomes of Israeli violence towards the local villagers.

The protest continued for three hours in which time tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets were continuously fired at protesters. One journalist was shot in the shoulder, a young Palestinian was shot in the arm, and many more were carried away and treated for excessive tear gas inhalation by the Red Crescent first aiders.

Video by Ni’lin Popular Committee

Tear gas and fire threaten Ni’lin demo

04th May 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Ni’lin, Occupied Palestine

During the weekly Friday demonstration on 1^st May, 2015 in the occupied West Bank village of Ni’lin, Israeli occupation forces fired more than two hundred tear gas canisters and several rubber-coated steel bullets. Tear-gas caused a fire in the fields that was put out by the protestors.

After the noon-prayer in the fields of the village, the demonstration set off towards the apartheid wall separating the village from part of its land. Soon after the start of the demonstration, Israeli occupation forces stopped the march by shooting several volleys of tear gas grenades. Even as the march stopped, Israeli forces kept shooting hundreds of tear gas canisters in rapid succession at the protestors.

Tear gas fired at the demonstration by the Israeli forces

When tear gas caused a fire in the wheat fields, demonstrators immediately rushed to put it out. Their attempts to save as much of the harvest as possible were impeded by the incessant firing of tear gas canisters. Israeli forces fired large quantities of tear gas directly at people in the fields.

Fire in the wheat fields caused by tear gas

Unlike last weeks protest, when Israeli snipers injured three youths in the leg with live ammunition, no-one was shot at this week’s protest. Demonstrators suffered from excessive tear-gas inhalation and being hit by tear-gas canisters.

Ni’lin filled with tear gas during demonstration against continued loss of land and isolation

11th April 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah Team | Ni’lin, Occupied Palestine

Israeli forces began firing tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets even before Friday’s protest had begun, as the people of Ni’lin were gathering near the local school to begin their march against the Apartheid Wall and continued loss of land.

The protest was initially divided into two. Israeli forces confronted protestors on one side, while townspeople were sneaking behind the military on the other side, attempting to reach the Apartheid Wall without being noticed. Once there, the Palestinian protesters, accompanied by Israeli and other international activists, gathered tinder and rubber tires, attempting to set fire to sections of the wall. The hope was that the heat created by the flames then being extinguished with water could create a rapid change in temperatures and lead to a crack in the concrete wall. Two soldiers discovered the smoke and immediately rushed to the scene, firing tear gas to disperse the protesters.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Evidence of attempts to create cracks in the Apartheid Wall by burning rubber

Massive amounts of tear gas reaches the village
Suffering from tear gas inhalation, the two groups of protesters were then forced up towards the village, were they met and reunited to continue their demonstration. The retreat was only disrupted by protesters running into the wheat fields to extinguish a fire caused by the tear gas grenades.

Activists extinguishing a fire caused by tear gas grenades

Israeli forces then marched aggressively towards the protesters and launched massive amounts of tear gas. One international activist reported tear gas grenades passing centimeters from her head. Occupying forces fired several rounds of rubber-coated steel bullets and protesters retreated back to a near by abandoned house, which left them somewhat entrapped, before an escape route was found.

The Israeli military, with their overpowering arsenal of weaponry against unarmed protesters, successfully ended the demonstration, as tear gas grenades came alarmingly close to inhabited houses, where young children were out playing and women were doing their laundry. «We don’t want to continue our protest when it gets too close to the village, as we have a long history of soldiers eventually invading and raiding the entire village», local Palestinian activist Saeed Amireh said. «Anyway, we will be back again next Friday. Right now I’m just sorry to have heard the soldiers talking with each other in Arabic as they moved in on us», another local Palestinian activist added.

The isolation of Ni’lin

Ni’lin and surrounding villages lost an estimated 40.000 out of a total of 58.000 dunums (equivalent to 580 hectares) of land following Al-Nakba in 1948, while an additional 8.000 dunums was lost during the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in 1967 and the subsequent creation of the Kirgat Sefer, Mettetyaho and Makabbem settlements. With the building of the Apartheid Wall to the west of the town and an Israeli military camp to the south, Ni’lin has seen another 2.500 dunums stolen. Together, only 7.500 dunums of land are left for the population of Ni’lin, which today inhabits approximately 5.000 people. Compared to “normal” growth rates of Palestinian cities, the population of Ni’lin should have been five times higher than it is today, but continued displacements and unemployment – which might be as high as 60 percent, according to unofficial estimates – have left the town without any significant growth since the Al-Nakba.

Today, Ni’lin is threatened by an approved construction of a tunnel beneath the town, which will be running under the segregated settler-only road and replace the town`s main entrance. The main aim of the tunnel is to impose total Israeli control of movement in and out of the city, but also to further separate Palestinians from their land and to destroy the local economy. Upon completion, Ni’lin and close-by villages will be surrounded by settlements and turned into a virtual prison.

Anti-barrier protests met with continued extreme violence
Protests in Ni’lin have a long history of being met with extreme violence from Israeli forces, with the shooting of a ten-year old boy in 2008 standing out as the most striking example. Since then, several more have been shot and killed or wounded. Additionally, the repression techniques in the army have often been spraying people with a mix of weak sewage water, animal manure and chemicals known as “skunk,” due to its strong smell, with vomiting as a result.

Friday’s protest left no one injured, despite the massive amount of tear gas and firing of rubber-coated steel bullets. However, evidence of Israeli violence was there, as the 16-year-old boy who was shot in the head last week was back at the forefront of the protest with a bandage around his head and a Palestinian flag in his hand.

Ni’lin demonstrators met with senseless violence

23th March 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah Team | Ni’lin, Occupied Palestine

On the 20th of March, during Ni’lin’s weekly Friday demonstration, Israeli occupation forces attacked protestors with about 20 rounds of tear gas canisters shot with the ‘venom’ tear gas launcher mounted on a military jeep (which can launch up to thirty rounds of tear gas before needing to be reloaded), countless rubber-coated steel bullets and approximately one hundred rounds of live ammunition. One Israeli activist was shot in the ankle and one Palestinian boy was injured in the leg, both with rubber-coated steel bullets. Many protestors suffered from tear gas inhalation.

Even before the demonstration started, Israeli occupation forces shot several rounds of tear gas grenades boys in the fields close to the village’s school. An Israeli activist documenting this aggression was shot in the ankle with a rubber-coated steel bullet and was treated at the scene by paramedics.

After the noon prayer, the protestors started their peaceful march in the direction of the apartheid wall and the illegal settlement of Hashmon’im, but were violently stopped by Israeli forces – initially with four rounds of tear gas shot with the venom, each round simultaneously shooting 10 tear gas canisters. In order to stop protestors from regathering and continuing their march after the thick clouds of tear gas had disappeared, Israeli forces used more rounds of the venom alongside rubber-coated steel bullets, pushing the demonstration back towards the village. One round of the venom was fired in close proximity to the village’s residential area. Most of the protestors suffered from tear gas inhalation. A 15-year old boy was shot with a close-range rubber-coated steel bullet that penetrated his leg. He was evacuated to a hospital, treated and released the same evening. The Israeli military continued shooting tear gas grenades towards the village even after the protestors had left.

At the same time a group of Palestinian youth approached the fence that forms part of the Apartheid barrier separating Ni’lin from lands belonging to the village, close to the illegal Hashmon’im settlement built on Ni’lin’s lands. Without being noticed by the Israeli forces at first, the group cut a big hole into the fence, before they were attacked by countless rounds of live ammunition shot at them by the Israeli military. The shooting of tear gas grenades and live ammunition at the group of youngsters continued until they returned to the village.

Palestinian protesters honor Tristan Anderson on 6th anniversary of his shooting

16th March 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah Team | Ni’lin, Occupied Palestine

During last week’s Friday demonstration in Ni’lin the inhabitants of the village commemorated the anniversary of US activist Tristan Anderson’s shooting during a protest in the village six years ago. At the demonstration Israeli forces fired several hundred tear gas grenades and canisters, rubber-coated steel bullets, and two rounds of live ammunition at protesters.

nilin5 — Soldiers aimed tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and live ammunition at demonstrators in Ni’lin

The demonstration began from the village mosque after noon prayers, as villagers accompanied by international and Israeli activists marched down a road leading towards the Apartheid Wall. Palestinians from Ni’lin carried posters calling for justice for Tristan Anderson.

Tristan, who was volunteering with ISM at the time, was shot in the head with a high-velocity tear gas grenade by Israeli border police on March 13, 2009 after that week’s Friday demonstration in Ni’lin. The injury left him with permanent severe brain damage. He now suffers chronic pain, is blind on his right eye, paralyzed and requires 24-hour care. Tristan’s family is currently pursuing a civil lawsuit in court demanding that the Israeli government pay for the extensive care Tristan will need for the rest of his life.

As the protesters were walking towards the wall, which Israel illegally built on Ni’lin’s lands, Israeli forces fired several dozen rounds of tear gas to disperse the protestors. The Apartheid Wall annexed hundreds of dunums of Ni’lin’s land, which the village’s farmers can now no longer access.

After the initial military assault demonstrators spread out into the fields and Palestinian youth began throwing stones toward the army. The clashes went on for several hours, during which Israeli forces fired tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets. Toward the end of the demonstration, as Israeli forces retreated back behind the apartheid wall, they increased the amount of tear gas fired and threw several stun grenades. Finally as some of the youths followed the soldiers a hill overlooking the village, Israeli forces fired two rounds of live ammunition, though no one was hit or injured by the bullets. The protest ended when the Israeli occupation forces went back behind the Apartheid Wall and shot a few final rounds of tear gas.