Tag: Ni’lin

On Thursday, the 14th of August, peaceful protesters from the village of Ni’lin, who’s lands are being annexed by the construction of Israel’s apartheid wall, were met by extreme violence by the occupation forces.

Photos courtesy of Activestills

The army later came deep into the village of Ni’lin, bombarding streets and houses with teargas for several hours and injuring at least fifteen persons.

Following the invasion on the night of the 13th of August, when eight jeeps entered the village, shot massive amounts of teargas into the homes of sleeping families and arrested one person, protesters gathered inside the village around noon and started walking towards the fields where the wall is being built. They were soon met by Israeli forces who used teargas and physical violence to drive them away. Soldiers used dogs and teargas projectiles to herd the demonstration back towards the village, where several jeeps and many soldiers where already ready to continue fighting.

During the whole afternoon the military stayed in the village, moving down towards the main square of Ni’lin. They used extreme amounts of teargas, shot randomly at houses and people, and were aiming for demonstrators with teargas projectiles and rubber-coated steel bullets. At least fifteen people, three of them internationals, where injured during the day, five of them having been hit in the head by bullets and teargas canisters. The soldiers also detained three Palestinians and one Israeli citizen who was accused of throwing stones. All four were later released. Not until five in the evening did the soldiers pull back and the clouds of teargas evaporate.

The demonstration was part of the continuing resistance of the people of Ni’lin, who are responding to the increased vilence by Israeli forces with increased determination to keep struggling for their rights and against the occupation. If constructed as planned, the apartheid wall will leave Ni’lin with as little as ten percent of their original farmland, and the tunnel that is being planned at the entrance of the village will severely restrict freedom of movement and transportation to and from Ni’lin, effectively reducing the possibility of maintaining anything close to normal life for the five thousand villagers. Hundreds of people have been injured during the past months’ resistance, and two boys, ten and seventeen years old, have been murdered by Israeli forces.

On Wednesday August the 13th 2008 a thirteen year old boy was kidnapped by Israeli soldiers and has reported that he was beaten. He was held for six hours before being released. Also, an epileptic shepherd from the West Bank village of Ni’lin told international activists that he was beaten up by Israeli soldiers when he attempted to take his sheep to his fields near his home at 9am.

The Israeli army has harassed the farmers of Ni’lin every morning for at least a week by sending soldiers to the road half way between the village and the construction site of the illegal apartheid wall. The soldiers says the land is declared a closed military zone, but have not shown any document proving that claim.

The soldiers continued the harassment by removing the security road blocks villagers of Ni’lin have build of stones on the sand roads leading into the village, in order to keep the soldiers away from their homes.

Villagers protested spontaneously against the removal of the stones and the military answered back by shooting rubber coated steel bullets, teargas and sound bombs at the demonstrators.

The Israeli army moved all the way into the village and shot at the protesters from the health care clinic.

The army chased the protesters forward and back in the fieds right outside the village from approximately 12.30 to 5 pm, continuously shooting huge amounts of teargas and rubber coated steel bullets.

5 villagers were seriously injured by rubber coated steel bullets. One were sent to the nearby hospital Al Shekh Zaid after being hit by 4 bullets, two of the bullets hit him on his left arm right next to his heart.

One 9 year old boy was kidnapped by the soldiers and beaten before they took him to the police station where the Israeli army held him for 6 hours before his family finally was allowed to come and take him home.

After a few hours of silence the military entered the village again at approximately 1am. 8 jeeps with heavily armed soldiers woke up the sleeping villagers by shooting sound bombs and tear-gas in the streets and into the houses. One man was taken to the police station without any charges or explanation and afterwards his house among others were tear-gassed.

At 11 am on Monday August the 11th approximately 200 Palestinians, Israeli and international activists marched towards the construction site of the illegal apartheid wall in the West Bank village of Ni’lin.

Photos courtesy of Activestills

The wall annexes more than half of the current farming land of Ni’lin and more than 80 percent of the land belonging to the villagers before 1948. Even the land that the Palestinians of Ni’lin have left after the construction of the wall is restricted to them. On the morning of the protest the Israeli army blocked the road half way in between the village and the construction site making it impossible for the farmers to reach and farm their land.

When the nonviolent protesters reached the sand road on which the illegal apartheid wall is being built, the Israeli army attempted to scare away the crowd by shooting live ammunition in the air as well as in the ground in front of the many people gathered. Huge amounts of teargas and sound grenades followed and divided the demonstrators into small groups. One group of Palestinians, Israelis and internationals kept trying to reach the construction machines, but were attacked by the many soldiers present.

The Israeli army continued shooting teargas and rubber-coated steel bullets at the nonviolent protesters until 5 pm while they tried to escape from the brutality of the soldiers.

7 Palestinians where seriously injured and required medical assistance after being hit by rubber-coated steel bullets.

One French protester had to be hospitalised after being hit in the head by a teargas cannister at close range in the beginning of the demonstration.

At 1pm on Friday the 8th August the citizens of Ni’lin gathered as usual to pray on their land.

They were prevented from reaching the usual site of their Friday prayer by around twenty Israeli soldiers with dogs, and so had to pray in a field very close to the village while being watched by the army. A foul-smelling unknown substance was sprayed at protesters by Israeli soldiers, suspected to be animal waste.

After the prayer they gathered with Israelis and internationals in an attempt to march to the part of their land where the annexation wall is about to be constructed. The wall steals more than 50% of the current farming land of the village and more than 80% of the land that belonged to the villagers before 1948. The Israeli army dispersed the protesters by shooting stinky wastewater and teargas at them, while they where still in the village approximately 3 kilometers from the construction site.

The demonstrators of Ni’lin escaped back into the village while being heavily gassed. Two persons later had to receive medical treatment after the demonstration due to the bad wounds caused by tear gas canisters fired as projectile weapons.

The demonstration that followed the initial clash lasted for 5 hours. They Israeli army kept shooting massive amounts of tear gas and rubber bullets while the demonstrators finally managed to build small stone road blocks to prevent the army jeeps to get into town as well as remove some of the barbed wire down to the road where the wall is being constructed.

On the 7th of August around 300 hundred people protested against the building of the apartheid wall at the land of Ni’lin.

Video courtesy of Israel Puermam

The demonstration started at 11 am and marched from the village centre. It reached the construction site managing to stop the bulldozers from working for a while before being attacked and driven back by border police. They kicked, punched and arrested Palestinian, Israeli and international protesters, also using tear gas and sound grenades. In a continuing pattern of intimidation of Ni’lin’s Popular Committee, Mohammed Abdelkader Amira was arrested along with an Israeli activist.

Due to the violence from the border police the demonstration pulled back and clashes soon broke out between the Israeli army and young men and boys from the village. It continued throughout the day until the soldiers finally left at 5 pm.

During the day a total of five people, among them one Palestinian, one Israeli and three French citizens, were arrested and seven injured by rubber bullets.

Today’s demonstration in Ni’lin was the first since Yousef was killed by Israeli army. His funeral was on Monday. More protests are planned to intensify the struggle for the Ni’lin villagers right to their land and to bring justice to the deaths of Yousef and Ahmed

During the night to Thursday 7th of August the Israeli army invaded the village once again. They broke into a house and arrested Sheikh Salah who was released during the day. The last week shows a pattern of Israeli army entering the village at night throwing sound grenades and arresting people active in the popular committee of the village organising protests against the wall.