Tag: Ramallah

Day of Violence at Nonviolent Demonstrations Accross the West Bank

Today at around 12 pm, in the village of kheirbet al musbah, 200 non-violent Palestinian activists, joined by Israelis and internationals, gathered from the surrounding villages to demonstrate against the closure of route 443. The demonstrators marched towards what was once the access route to route 443, but which has been blocked as part of Israel’s apartheid policies. 443 has been designated a pass road for Israelis only, in contradiction to the Supreme Court’s ruling. The demonstrators chanted against the occupation and against the closure. On the access road, blocked by cement, there were a few soldiers who tried to prevent the demonstrators from moving forward. They beat several youth who were among the demonstrators. The march continued, however, despite these efforts. The march stopped at the 443 road and the demonstrators stood in front of a line of police and soldiers, continuing to chant and to wave Palestinian flags. Some of the youth, after the demonstration dispersed, threw stones at the assembled soldiers and police. A few jeeps carrying border police and soldiers fired tear gas and rubber bullets towards the demonstrators the village and surrounding olive groves. The organizers of the demonstration invited Israeli and international demonstrators to continue to attend the protest, now regularly scheduled for once a week.

At the demonstration today in Bil’in, three demonstrators, two Palestinians and one Israeli, were seriously hurt. The first wounded demonstrator was a 40 year old resident of Bil’in and was shot in the hand and chest with a teargas canister which burned through his coat and shirt, broke the palm of his hand and injured his chest. The teargas canister was fired directly at the protester from short range. The Israeli who was wounded was hit in the head with a rubber coated steel bullet. The Israeli who was hit with the rubber bullet was standing at the side of the road leading to the wall. When he was hit he fell unconscious and was evacuated with the injured Palestinian. He is bruised and in pain and shock. Another Bil’in resident, Adib Abu Rahme, was arrested and beaten in the head. He was near the wall and was caught by the soldiers, who battered his head and threw him to the side of the road while he was still bleeding. Abu Rahme, after coming to, identified the soldier who had beaten him to a photographer. At this stage, the soldiers arrested him again and held him for two hours, even though he required urgent medical care. All three were taken to the Ramallah hospital. The Israeli was sent to a hospital in Israel and has been released. The two Palestinians were released and are recuperating.

60 Palestinians and 5 Israelis converged on Road 60 near Umm Salamuna today to nonviolently protest the theft of 30 Dunums of Palestinian land for the expansion of the road to Efrat settlement. The army set up checkpoints around the protest and denied many Palestinains and Israelis access. Soldiers made regular incursions into the protest to beat demonstrators, one Palestinian man was seriously wounded.

Demonstration against Apartheid Roads

On Sunday, November 3, 2007 , Palestinians delivered a message to Condoleezza Rice on the Israeli-only 443 highway: The segregation that Condoleezza’s parents suffered from and struggled against did not die in Alabama, but lives today in Palestine. The demonstration took place on the side of road 443, above the bridge near Beit Ur that runs above the Palestinian only tunnel that runs underneath the highway.

“We aren’t allowed on the front or the backs of busses, we aren’t even allowed on the roads of our own country.” explained Ahmed of the Popular Mobilization against Apartheid.

Around fifty activists, Palestinian, Israeli, and international supporters, were present, standing up to segregation and discrimination. Villagers wore masks of Condoleezza Rice’s face, and a banner which stated: “Condi: What would Rosa Parks do?” They wore signs which said ‘Apartheid Lives’ in an attempt to show the similarities drawn between the American civil rights movement and South African anti-apartheid movement.

The Israeli army declared the area a closed military zone, blocking attempts by both Palestinian and Israeli activists to join the demonstration.

In the version of the two state solutions being advocated by Dr. Rice in her trips throughout the Middle East, road 443 will remain in Israeli control. Despite the fact that all Israeli settlements are illegal under international law, the Bush administration promised Israel in 2004 that the border of Israel with the future Palestinian state would be adjusted to allow Israel to retain its “already existing major Israeli population centers”. Since this promise in 2004 Israel has increased creation and building of the settlements and settlement infrastructure that make up these major population centers. According to this vision already existing settler roads will run throughout the so called Palestinian state, with bridges for Israelis and tunnels underneath for Palestinians. These segregated roads divide any possible Palestinian state into separate enclaves.

Ahmed, a speaker for the Popular Mobilization against Apartheid said, “the two state solution promoted by Bush and Dr. Rice is not actually two states nor is it a solution. It is Apartheid.”

For more information:
Ahmed Darwish 0545927352

and visit www.apartheidmasked.org for detailed information, and pictures of the event.

Anti-Apartheid Demonstration this Sunday near Beit Ur

On Sunday, at 10 am, November 4th a demonstration against the apartheid road system will take place on the Israeli-only 443 highway. The demonstration will take place at the bridge near Beit Ur that runs above the Palestinian only tunnel that runs beneath the highway.

For seven years now, Highway 443 has been accessible to Israelis only. Palestinians are forbidden to travel on the highway, even on the 9.5 kilometer-long segment which passes through occupied West Bank territory and is built on land that has been confiscated from Palestinians whose olive trees have been cut down “for the benefit of the local population.”

Palestinians are forbidden to travel even along the segment that is nine and a half kilometers long and passes through West Bank territory. The road was widened in the 1990s using land confiscated from the local Palestinians under the pretense that the road would be open to Palestinians as well as Israelis, many ancient olive trees were destroyed during the road expansion.

The policy of prohibiting Palestinian movement on this road is not an isolated case. On 312 kilometers of main roads in the West Bank, vehicles bearing Palestinian license plates are forbidden or restricted access. According to OCHA (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) Of the 539 physical obstacles and check point that restrict Palestinian movement, only fourteen separate the territories occupied in 1967 from Israel proper. Nearly all of the physical obstacles and checkpoints that make up the closure regime are located along the roads for Israeli use. These roads, in addition to the segregation wall, carve up Palestinian areas into isolated enclaves. This fragmentation is at the root of the West Bank’s declining economy.

Thursday October 24th Palestinian Israeli and international protesters blocked the highway for over fifteen minutes by organizing a sit down in the road. Palestinians distributed a message to the drivers in Hebrew (see: http://www.apartheidmasked.org/?p=118) on the highway: “We know what it feels like to be blocked. We experience it daily.”

Journalists can meet at the demonstration itself at 10 am, at the bridge near beit Ur that runs above the Palestinian only tunnel that runs beneath the highway.

From Tel Aviv, meet at the central bus station at 8:30, and contact Ilan Shalif beforehand as early as you can if a ride is needed. Email is best, ilan@shalif.com and include your mobile phone, or call him at 036482749 or 0524655520 but do not send a text message.

From Ramallah, meet at the Manara at 9 am.

For more information:
Yousef Karaje 02-2488113
or Mohammad 0545573285

and visit www.apartheidmasked.org

Bedouin Village facing demolition near Bir Nabala


*A villager looks toward the Apartheid Wall that has separated the village members. 18 members of the village are behind the Wall, which now takes 2 hours driving to reach.*

In September this year, a village north of Jerusalem was divided in two when the Israeli government completed another section of the Apartheid Wall. The Israeli government intends to destroy the greater part of the village, which lies to the east of the wall in territory officially recognized by Israel as part of the Jerusalem municipality, to build housing, industry and transport facilities. The Apartheid Wall has separated the village members, leaving 45 people on land claimed by Israel and 18 on the other side in Palestinian territory near the village of Bir Nabala.

The villagers to the east of the Wall no longer have direct access to water and electricity. Their only source of water is a plastic hose that runs under the Wall, and they must call family members on the other side of the wall to turn the water supply on and off. Villagers have also lost access to grazing land for their livestock and pay 300 shekels for transport to retrieve feed from the land they once farmed. The completion of the wall has also prevented villagers from taking livestock to markets in the West Bank and the Ministry of Agriculture consistently denies permits allowing villagers’ access to the West Bank.

The 14 children in the village who used to walk to school must now travel approximately two hours each day to and from school. The children pass through Qalandyia checkpoint to Ramallah and then take another bus to Bir Nabala. This journey is expensive, costing 15 shekels per child, which the villagers struggle to pay. Due to the expense, ten children from east of the wall are living with members of the village on the other side near Bir Nabala.

As the final sections of the wall were being put in place in September, the movement of villagers was restricted by army for ten days. During this period children were unable to attend school and villagers had limited access to food and other necessities. On the 16th of September, members of the village separated by the wall attempted to bring livestock feed to fellow villagers east of the wall via the remaining small gap. The soldiers guarding this opening prevented the animal feed from being brought across and called four army jeeps to the scene to punish villagers.

Twenty soldiers entered the houses of the village members east of the wall, who were to receive the livestock feed, and attacked the villagers. A nineteen year old man and his uncle were taken to hospital once villagers had negotiated for an hour with authorities to allow an ambulance to arrive.

On the 25th of November a lawyer will defend the villagers before a civil court in Jerusalem. Meanwhile, they struggle both to maintain their daily routine as well as to prepare themselves for the legal battle ahead. Members of the village make daily phone calls to NGO’s such as B’Tselem to help them deal with issues such as soldiers at Qalandia checkpoint. They have also made numerous calls to the Palestinian Authority for assistance, but their requests can’t be fulfilled due to the PA’s inability to operate on land claimed by the Israeli authorities.

When asked what the Israeli government intended to do with the villagers after demolition of their homes, the villagers’ spokesman did not have a clear idea. “If we go now, I do not know where we will go,” he told us. “In ’48 we lived in Beir Sheba. As a result of the Nakbah we were forced to move. In 1962 we came to this area and have lived here ever since. I was a 1 year old boy then and have lived on this land ever since. This land belongs to East Jerusalem, we are on Arab land” he added.

13 Palestinians arrested in Al-Mazra’a Al-Qibliya

** Update **
On October 31st, the Israeli army invaded Al-Mazra’a Al-Qibliya and arrested eight more people. It seems they are to be charged with exactly the same crimes the three British women formerly imprisoned were charged with. Those allegations proved to be false and the women released. More information will come as it is known.

October 27th 2007

Last night between 1am and 3am the Israeli army raided the West bank towns of Abu Shukheidim and Al-Mazra’a Al-Qibliya arresting 13 Palestinians on allegations of criminal damage and being at an illegal demonstration, they are now in Binyamin police station. In what is clearly collective punishment, the arrested include the head of the Al-Mazra’a Al-Qibliya council, a village council member and three minors. The raids follow a demonstration on Friday against the illegal annexation of agricultural lands by settlers.

The villages are surrounded by a group of settlements collectively known as Talmund B, who have illegally confiscated 14,000 dunums of Palestinian land for agricultural purposes, including 500 dunums in the last three months. Despite local Palestinians contesting the confiscation in court, the settlers have been planting grape trees in a bid to claim the land through facts on the ground.

An armed settler disturbed a protest against the land confiscation in August and settler harassment continued at Friday’s protest. Live ammunition was used by settlers against the non-violent demonstration. Two nights ago 30 to 40 adult settlers threw rocks at the village for about an hour, breaking a solar panel in the process. Last night’s arrests show how the army has chosen to ignore settler violence while collectively punishing local Palestinians for exercising their right to protest the confiscation of their property.

The arrests come the day after the release of three female British peace activists, aged 45, 60 and 62, who were held by the Israeli police on false charges of criminal damage after being present at the demonstrations on Friday . Israeli police attempted to deport them, and sent all three to the Ministry of the Interior where their case was thrown out.

While the three British women were released due to the false nature of the allegations, it is feared the prejudice inherent in the Israeli court system will ensure the Palestinians face jail time and fines, even if the allegations prove to be false.