Palestinian farmer has heart attack while Israeli forces cut down his olive trees. Three international and two Israeli activists arrested from demonstration.
8th March 2009, Rastira, Qalqilya region: A Palestinian farmer has had a heart attack while Israeli forces cut down olive trees on his and other farmers’ lands in the village of Rastira, Qalqilya region. Medics treated him at the scene for over an hour before he returned home to rest.
Two Israeli and three international solidarity, from the US, Denmark and Sweden, have also been arrested and taken to an Israeli police station in the settlement of Qedumim after they joined villagers from Rastira, Wadi Ar-Rasha and Dhab’a in protest over the Israeli destruction of the region’s olive trees.
Residents from the area, joined by Israeli and international activists, were protesting the cutting down of olive trees due to the Israeli plans to change the route of the Apartheid Wall in the area.
The Israeli forces are chaining up the trees and cutting them down. Just before, they gave everyone five minutes to leave the area, but then straight away went and took the Israelis and internationals. Women from the village have just come out to the fields and are throwing shoes at the soldiers. Israel is destroying more of the village’s land for the settlements. – Tom Patterson (USA) International Solidarity Movement
The villages of Rastira, Wadi Ar-Rasha and Dhab’a are completely surrounded by both Israel’s Apartheid Wall and the illegal Israeli settlements of Alfe Menashe.
The Israeli Occupation Forces continued their most recent assaults on the village of Jayyous, near Qalqilya, invading on the 5th and 6th of February.
On the 5th February , Israeli forces invaded at 2pm, imposing curfew on the village until 10pm.
The following day, at around 12.30pm, the army once again entered the village, this time using a bulldozer to pave the way for 6 jeeps, dozens of soldiers and border police firing tear gas and rubber bullets. They then proceeded to occupy one family home, taking up position on the roof as the village attempted to resist the invasion by throwing rocks.
The IOF also attempted to break in to another house nearby. When their attempts to break open the lock on the front gate with a rock failed, they employed the bulldozer to break it open creating much damage to the gate. Yet they then failed, after many attempts, to break down the front door, all the time threatening international Human Rights Workers (HRWs) who were filming while trying to stop them.
Israeli forces entered Jayyous in armored jeeps and bulldozers
Several jeeps accompanied by soldiers on foot then descended into the village continually firing at residents. When the international HRWs confronted the soldiers they were told that the area was a closed military zone and threatened the internationals with arrest if they stayed. Throughout this time the Israeli soldiers did not show the required paper for declaring a closed military zone.
The army pushed further through the whole village, firing tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and live ammunition indiscriminately, even to the point where they seemed to be treating the invasion as a game. The soldiers moved towards a house in the centre of the village when two HRWs came into view of the house. The international HRWs were quickly fired upon from around 10 metres away, despite being clearly unarmed having even been acknowledged moments before by the soldier who shot at them.
Villagers in Jayyous protest detention of youth
The soldiers then came out of the house with a young man and were taking him towards the jeeps, when his brother who was trying to prevent his brother’s arrest was shot at close range with a rubber-coated steel bullet causing serious injury to his arm. While one international HRW headed to the area where Israeli soldiers were arresting the young man, they were fired upon, with the soldier, anxious that no film or photos were captured, obviously aiming for the head.
During the next half hour many of the residents of the village, supported by internationals, came out of their houses and argued with the soldiers demanding they release the boy and leave the village. On more than one occasion the soldiers used sound grenades, throwing them into the crowd mainly composed women and elderly men.
Attempts to release the boy were met with physical violence and the pointing of weapons in peoples faces. The Israeli military eventually made their way to the edge of the village near the south gate. They told villagers that they would stay there and if the village was quiet for 5 minutes they would release the boy, thus making it obvious that they were holding him for no other reason than for blackmail.
After another half hour, the Israeli DCO arriving and the grandfather stubbornly negotiating with them, the boy was released. During this time the army had gained access to the house they tried to break into previously and took up sniping positions on the roof. After several clashes between the village youth and the Israeli army they retreated temporarily to the south gate before once again entering the village, this time on foot with no support from jeeps.
As it got dark they once again retreated to the south gate, before spreading themselves out along the fence that runs along the edge of the village. Youths from the village attempted and were successful a couple of times in setting tires alight on the fence but the army used flares and were repeatedly shooting with automatic rifle fire. This continued for a couple of hours until at this point the village has been invaded again by many jeeps and soldiers with the whole village yet again under curfew.
A 16-year-old boy and a 20-year-old man, from the Qalqiliya and Salfit districts respectively, were killed in unrelated incidents in January during Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip.
On January 8th, Ibrahim Abdulkarim Shamlawi, a student at Al-Quds University in Abu Dis, east of Jerusalem, but from the village of Haris in the Salfit governorate, was shot dead by soldiers at an Israeli gas station near the Ma’ale Adummim settlement. Mr. Shamlawi was reportedly very angry about the war on Gaza and went out to the gas station, with no identification but with 100 shekels in his pocket and a bottle full of benzene. He proceeded to pour the benzene on the floor of the gas station and then tried to light it. Palestinian employees of the gas station tried to stop him, and succeeded, but soldiers arriving in response the incident shot him dead rather than arresting him, said the deputy governor of Salfit.
Because Mr. Shamlawi was not carrying ID, it took three to four days to identify his body, the deputy governor said. His father in Haris reported him missing after this period, and the Salfit governorate, which had information on the incident, contacted Israeli authorities, who brought photographs of the body to Haris for his father to identify. Following an autopsy performed at an Israeli medical centre, the body was returned to Haris on January 15th and buried the same day.
On the night of January 13th three teenaged boys from Azzun were arrested by the army, allegedly for throwing stones on Road 55, though a cousin of the dead boy claims he was helping a friend look for strayed sheep. After being arrested, the boys had their hands tied behind their backs. A settler on the scene – reportedly from Immanu’el settlement and the son of the former mayor – is said to have then beat to death one of the boys, Nasser Mustafa Daoud Audh, age 16, by hitting him repeatedly over the head with a blunt object. The other two boys were arrested and reportedly taken to the jail at the IDF base near Huwwara, Nablus district.
The cousin said Nasser’s body was taken to Qedumim settlement, where his father went to claim it the following day. He was reportedly asked to sign two forms, both in Hebrew. One was a consent form for organ removal, and the other was said to have been a form agreeing not to press charges against the settler, who was then freed. The father had apparently not understood the nature of the second form when he signed it, as he cannot read Hebrew and it was not explained to him.
Nasser’s body was returned to Azzun on January 15th for burial, following an autopsy and organ removal. However, the Israeli army, returning the body at around 5 p.m., reportedly opened fire with rubber bullets on boys near the entrance of the village who were said to have been throwing stones at the army vehicle. The army also reportedly lobbed tear-gas canisters, and seven boys were said to have been injured in the incident.
The family waited for several hours for Nasser’s body to be returned, as the army then took it away again following the incident. Just before 8 p.m. mourners were told the body would not be returned until the following morning, though it was finally returned to the family after 9 p.m. for the funeral.
Report written by: Beth
Date report written on: January 19, 2009
Mofid Saleh Walwil, a 20 year old resident of Qalqiliya, was killed by Israeli forces at approximately 1pm on Sunday 4th December, making him the fourth Palestinian to be killed by the Israeli army in the West Bank in the past week.
Mofid was assassinated close to the Apartheid Wall that surrounds the city, as a group of youth were throwing stones at a settler-only road that runs along the route of the illegal Wall, in response to the Israeli ground invasion of the Gaza Strip. Residents of the city report that an Israeli jeep arrived on the scene, and, with a single sniper bullet, shot Mofid in the forehead, killing him instantly. None of the other Palestinian youth were injured.
Approximately 1000 mourners filled the streets of Qalqiliya city, carrying Mofid’s lifeless body through the city, chanting their support for Mofid and for Gaza.
“With our souls and our blood, we stand with Mofid,
With our souls and our blood, we stand with Gaza,
With our souls and our blood, we stand with Al Quds.”
Since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza, four Palestinian youths have been killed by Israeli armed forces in the occupied West Bank. Two youths, Arafat Al Khawaje and Mohammad Al Khawaje, were killed in the village of Ni’lin, near Ramallah; another, 17 year old Mohammad Hamid, was killed in the village of Silwad, to the north-west of Ramallah.
These killings put paid to the claim oft-made by the Israeli government that Hamas is the reason they have launched a war on Gaza – that they have no need to kill civilians in the West Bank because of the governance of the Palestinian Authority there. Rather, these murders reveal that the true targets of Israeli policy are the Palestinian people, civilians and fighters alike, regardless of political affiliation.
To view original article, published by Al Arabiya News Channel on the 1st January, click here (Arabic version here)
Hollywood stars have called for their pictures to be removed from the website of a diamond company that is associated with settlement expansion in Israel and human rights violations in Africa.
The diamond stores owned by Jewish-American billionaire Lev Leviev had to remove pictures of several actresses after they complained of being linked to a company that funds settlements in the Palestinian occupied territories, a statement issued by the pro-Palestinian human rights group Adalah- New York said.
The actresses include Salma Hayek, Sharon Stone, Whitney Houston, Halle Berry, Drew Barrymore, Brooke Shields, Andie Macdowell, and Lucy Liu.
The celebrities were contacted by the rights group Adalah and the New York based ‘Jews Against the Occupation’ and asked them to distance themselves from a corporation that supports the Zionist project.
The organizations sent letters to the actresses and held negotiations with their representatives to inform them of the human rights violations Leviev is involved in in Palestine and South Africa. As a result the actresses demanded that pictures of them wearing his diamonds were removed from the company’s website.
“Unethical business”
In October, the ambassador of Oxfam International aid agency Kristin Davis demanded that the Leviev’s company remove her pictures from its website.
In June, UNICEF announced its refusal to receive any future donations from Leviev for his involvement in building settlements in the West Bank.
UNICEF justified its decision by stating that it does not receive donations from any parties in conflicts.
“We are gratified that these stars have joined UNICEF, Oxfam and a growing list of others who have distanced themselves from Leviev over his companies’ settlement construction in violation of international law in Palestine, and rights abuses in Angola and Namibia,” Ethan Heitner from Adalah- NY said.
“Some immediately expressed concern when we explained that Leviev was using their photos to whitewash his unethical business practices,” he said, adding “their actions show that Leviev’s wealth and diamonds can’t buy impunity.”
Translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid
