On Wednesday, March 8th, I experienced International Womens Day (IWD) near Jerusalem. 120 women gathered at Ar Ram checkpoint. We marched from Ar Ram checkpoint to Qalandiya checkpoint which isn’t too far away. It is staggering how close together these two permanent checkpoints are. The rally was a fairly quiet one. Mid march the women stood lined up against the Apartheid wall. When we marched to Qalandiya we recieved a very possitive reaction from all the Palestinians women and men walking out of the check point.
Amongst the women there appeared to be a fair mix of Israeli’s and Palestinian women, as well as internationals. The proportions difficult to calculate give the number of Palestinian women without head coverings that could have been Israeli’s (and vice versa). Needless to say that it was a real melting pot of women, old, young, alternative and conservative appearances. Apparently many of the Israeli activists who would have liked to attend were participating in another IWD demonstration in Nazareth.
The rally was organised by the Jerusalem Centre for Women (JCW). There were placards throughout the rally in Hebrew, Arabic and English with slogans like ‘War means unemployment,’ ‘Dismantle the settlments NOW,’ ‘House Demolitions Violate Women,’ etc. The rally also had many placards particularly reflecting the politics of the Jerusalem Centre For women with the words “Jerusalem two capitals for two states.’
The weekly non-violent protests against the Israeli Apartheid wall continued this Friday in Bil’in and Beit Sira, with Palestinians from both villages uniting once again with Internationals and Israelis in a display of resistance to the ongoing theft of their villages’ land for the construction of the Apartheid Wall.
After the morning direct action against the Wall in Bi’in, the focus moved to Beit Sira where the village has begun its wall struggle in the past weeks. The Route of the wall in Beit Sira is designed to annex the Makabim settlement and more of Beit Sira’s land to Israel. Ismael Mahmoud, a member of the popular committee against the wall, told ISM that the Israeli military previously uprooted more than 1500 of the village olive trees to build a barrier that will isolate more than 800 dunnms of land from the village
Today’s march was attended by over 500 people, including many Palestinians from Bil’in and Israelis that were injured in the morning action, and International activists. The crowd marched from village to lands destroyed by wall construction, alongside the settlement of Maccabim.
Soon, the crowd approached Border Police and Israeli Military, but were able to pass them, despite their shoving and walk around to the adjacent road. A were dismayed to see some of the same border police unit who had shot from close range both Matan Cohen, 17, from Tel Aviv, and a member of the “Anarchists Against the Fence” organization in the eye and Hussni Rayan of Beit Sira .
After changing direction and moving onto the road, the demonstrators were able to surround a military jeep by Palestinians with only olive branches, flags and a megaphone against a full array of Israeli weaponry. The Border Police stormed the demonstrators in an attempt to break the peaceful crowd up, using their batons and sheilds to beat the unarmed people as well as throwing sound bombs. While doing this, a few border police fell off the road into the olive orchards and number of people were injured by further Israeli violence.
In a few minutes the situation calmed down, and the people of Beit Sira were able to give speeches, discussing the wall and the political situation in Palestine. While this was happening, ISM volunteers observed the border police getting their sound bombs and tear gas ready for use against the unarmed demonstrators.
soldiers seen here preparing sound bombs and tear gas grenades to attack the peaceful crowd
As the protest ended and the people began to walk away, they began their assault, which provoked stone throwing by the local young boys. The struggle of Beit Sira will continue, with more protests scheduled for the coming weeks.
Activists left for Bil’in after the Bet Sira demo ended, with reports of soldiers entering the village. When we reached we found the IOF was confronting stone throwing youth with tear gas and rubber bullets in a very dangerous manner.
About thirty Israeli, International and Palestinian activists then marched towards the soldiers andsucseeded in stopping their firing at the boys.
Once they reached the wall, the Palestinians showed court papers to the soldiers supporting their right to access land which has been closed off by the Wall.
Citing a closed military zone order, the protesters refused to leave and sat down in front of the army jeeps and a large number of Israeli Military.
After 20 minutes, the Popular Committee decided to leave the area and return to the village. Some tear gas was fired after the activists’ departure, but for the most part things remained calm.
Recently, Bil’in has expanded what is the first Palestinian settlement, located west of the barrier, as well as a second outpost nearby. Abdullah Abu Rahma, coordinator of the Popular Committee Against the Wall, says that they installed the house near the Wall as yet another way to protest against land expropriation for settlement construction and expansion. With over a year of struggle behind them, their will to resist the Occupation and the Apartheid Wall has not diminished at all.
The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) is inviting volunteers to come to Palestine for a conference on Joint Nonviolent Struggle in Bil’in and for ISM’s Spring and Summer Campaigns. ISM’s Spring Campaign will take place between March 1st and April 23rd, 2006, and Freedom Summer will be from July 2 until August 5, 2006.
for more photos please look at these links:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/060303/ids_photos_wl/r2786024919.jpg
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/060303/ids_photos_wl/r1208802481.jpg
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/060303/481/jrl10303031009
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/060303/481/jrl10503031010
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/060303/480/jrl12703031602
The demonstration today in the village of Beit Sira was a peaceful march of one hundred people to the village land where olive trees are being uprooted to make way for planned route of the annexation Barrier. The Route of the Barrier in Beit Sira is designed to annex the Makabim settlement and more of Beit Sira’s land to Israel. To the left of the crowd, on the hill bulldozers were seen working on the wall’s foundation throughout the day.
We walked in the direction of the site until they reached the line of Israeli soldiers waiting to block us. We were dismayed to see that the same border police unit who had shot Matan Cohen in the eye and Hussni Rayan from close range waiting for us. A stand off ensued in which both the soldiers and the demonstrators behaved in a restrained manner. A village elder negotiated that a group of us would cross the road (which had been partially destroyed by the Israeli Military) in order to replant trees. While one group planted trees, the rest of us chanted, while being flanked by mostly border police.
After finishing, the internationals formed a line between the border police and the demonstrators, and after approximately 20 minutes, the people all moved back to the village. As opposed to the previous demos in Bet Sira, there were no injuries at today’s demonstration Another demonstration in Bet Sira is scheduled for this Friday.
February 12, 2006, 11 a.m. – Jews Against Genocide (J.A.G.) spray painted “Manifest Destiny” over a sign reading “The Hope of Us All,” placed at the Kalandia checkpoint by Israeli occupation authorities. We also repainted the infamous Nazi slogan “Arbeit Macht Frei” (“Work Makes You Free”) that was painted over by the military.
The phrase “Manifest Destiny” was an ideology used to excuse westward colonization in what is now the United States. It allowed the expulsion and genocide of native populations by aligning the U.S. settler movement with a cultural belief that God intended the Americas for Europeans. Natives who survived were consigned to live on isolated reservations, their way of life forever destroyed.
Israeli expansionism reflects a similar sense of divine entitlement. When one sees the native population of Palestine being confined to live on ever-shrinking sections of their historical homeland in exchange for promises of peace, the destruction of Palestinian olive trees, the creation of ghettos in order to accommodate settlements and Jewish-only roads, and repeated broken agreements, the parallels should not be ignored.
Israeli historian Benny Morris made the connection with the plight of the Native Americans, albeit reaching the opposite moral conclusion, when he stated the following in a Ha’aretz interview:
Ari Shavit: “And morally speaking, you have no problem with that deed,” [the displacement of Palestinians in 1948, refered to by Palestinians as “Al-Nakba” – “The Disaster”].
Benny Morris: “That is correct. Even the great American democracy could not have been created without the annihilation of the Indians. There are cases in which the overall, final good justifies harsh and cruel acts that are committed in the course of history.”
The full article is available at http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=380986.
“Arbeit Meicht Frei” was written at the entrance of Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps. We did not mean to imply that Ramallah is Auschwitz. We did, however, wish to point out that there are many disturbing parallels between the tactics used by the occupation and those used by the Nazis. For example, the attempt to beautify dehumanizing institutions through empty phrases like “The Hope of Us All” and “Arbeit Macht Frei.”
The sign “The Hope of Us All” and the new Ramallah Terminal were inaugurated on the 20th of Dec 2005. The new Terminal is set up so that there is no physical contact between the soldiers and the Palestinians. The soldiers scream commands to the Palestinians over loud speakers as they are made to go through a series of electronic gates and turnstiles. The new Terminal embodies the occupation in its alienated, bureaucratically cruel form. It is situated between one Palestinian area and another and flanked on both sides by the annexation barrier effectively turning Ramallah into a ghetto.
Jews Against Genocide believes ethnic cleansing is unjustifiable, regardless of the perpetrator. We believe it is important to heed disturbing patterns in history as warning signals so that another Genocide never occurs, to any people.
Palestinians, Internationals & Israelis Protest on the Path of the Wall in Aboud
by Harrison & Henry
Aboud;
150 Palestinians, Internationals and Israelis marched through the streets of Aboud on Friday to protest against the Apartheid Wall. The villagers hope to raise awareness that the current path of the barrier will confiscate 20 percent of the West Bank’s water supply, numerous important archeological sites, a historical church, and much of the village’s land. They also emphasized the issue of the Danish cartoons which insulted the Prophet Mohammed and have caused a much misunderstood global reaction.
The rally marched through the village, down the main road and out into the village’s agricultural lands, where the IOF have begun laying the foundation for the wall’s path through the lands of Aboud.
Path of the Wall seen in the distance
There were blankets on this path to secure the sands while the Israeli government builds the illegal Apartheid wall. In an act of non-violent resistance and protest of Israel’s further construction on their lands, people attending the rally set fire to the blankets and placed large rocks on the road.
On the hill Bassam Al Salhi, Secretary General of the Palestinian People Party in addition to Fateh member Moheeb Awwad, a newly elected member of the Palestinian legislative council addressed the protesters.
The PPP had a very strong presence at the rally, celebrating the anniversary of their organisation and declaring the need to continue the campaign against the wall and the occupation. Comments echoed by Moheeb Awwad from Fateh who talked about the need for all Palestinian factions to unite in continuing to work against the occupation.
There was also a call from Bassam Al Salhi from the PPP to support the internationals who were working with the Palestinians to end the occupation and to separate them from their governments some of which supported the racist cartoons which have been published around Europe. An international activist also spoke, affirming the Palestinian struggle; the non-violent resistance against the Wall and settlements and spoke out concerning the offensive cartoon printed recently in a Danish newspaper.
The printing of cartoons, which were insulting to Islam’s prophet Mohammed, were described as an attempt to break the good ties between Muslims and Christians in the Palestinian territories and elsewhere. This is particularly important for the people of Aboud, who are both Muslim and Christian and have lived in peace together for generations.
The rally then moved around the corner when it was confronted by an Israeli military jeep. Many Palestinians threw stones at the jeep in an attempt to force it back. The Israeli military responded by firing warning shots of live ammunition in the air. Soon, the rally moved back to the village, undeterred by the violence of the Israeli Military, and determined to continue their resistance.
Israeli Military Jeep approaches demonstrators
The lawyer of the Popular Committee, Mohammad Dahla, said that so far there have not been any trees uprooted in the area, because the construction is being carried out in a very rocky area at the moment. But the planned route indicates that the coming stage will include confiscating and bulldozing farmlands.
“We will achieve a ruling to bar the uprooting of the trees, and farmlands”, Dahla stated, “The court said that the route will be shifted, we still did not receive any new maps or plans”.
Since Israel started the construction of the Wall in Aboud, 1700 Dunams of farmlands were annexed, and bulldozed. Additional 3000 Dunams will be isolated behind the Wall.
People of Bil’in plough their land while the Israeli Government builds illegal settlements
Bilin;
The weekly non-violent protests against the Israeli Apartheid wall continued this Friday in Bil’in, with Palestinians from the village uniting once again with Internationals and Israelis in a display of resistance to the ongoing theft of their village’s land.
Recently, Bil’in has expanded what is the first Palestinian settlement, located west of the barrier. On Tuesday night Bil’in villagers built the outpost’s second house. Abdullah Abu Rahma, coordinator of the Popular Committee Against the Wall, reported that the protesters attempted to reach a room they installed near the Wall in order to protest against it and and against land expropriation for settlement construction and expansion.
“Twenty protesters managed to reach the site, stood near the military bulldozers, and raised a Palestinian flag”, Abu Rahma stated, “soldiers surrounded and attacked them, and threatened to arrest them if they do not leave the area”.
“The presence of the army is provocation, their checkpoints, wall, settlement activities and land grab are direct violations to our rights, and the international law”, Abu Rahma added, “We have a protest center behind the Wall, we always protest peacefully there, we have the right to resist the occupation and to resist the land expropriation policy practiced against us”.
In total, six protesters were injured by rubber-coated bullets, dozens suffocated after inhaling gas fired by the army.
Soldiers detained eleven international peace activists, two Israelis and two Palestinians. All were held for three hours before they were released, except for one Israeli peace activist who was transferred to a nearby military base.
The one year anniversary of the struggle of Bil’in is fast approaching, on February 20th, and their will to resist the Occupation and the Apartheid Wall has not diminished since then. The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) is inviting volunteers to come to Palestine for a conference on Joint Nonviolent Struggle in Bil’in and for ISM’s Spring campaign.
The Bil’in Conference will take place February 20 & 21, 2006. ISM’s Spring Campaign will take place between March 1st and April 23rd, 2006.
