17nth April 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Huwwara Team | Kafr Qaddum, Occupied Palestine
This week’s Friday demonstration in Kafr Qaddum followed the same violent pattern as the previous ones during the past weeks. The Israeli occupation forces began their shooting before the demonstration even started. Soldiers and border police fired tear gas, stun grenades, rubber-coated steel bullets and live ammonition at the protestors. Hammam Khalid Aqil, age 19, was hit by two rubber-coated steel bullets, one in his leg and one in his head.
Israeli forces arresting an unconscious man
He was badly injured and while he was still unconscious the Israeli army arrested him and took him to a hospital in Israel where he is now under intensive care. His condition is extremely serious, even so it took several hours before his parents were allowed to come and see him at the hospital.
Palestinian Prisoners Day in Kafr Qaddum
The demonstration was slightly bigger than usual with between 150-200 villagers and activists participating. Because April 17th is Palestinian Prisoners Day many protestors were carrying pictures of family members and friends who are currently suffering in Israeli jails.
Protestors being tear gassed
The occupation forces met the demonstration with terrifying brutality. They used the skunk-water truck to spray down not only protestors but family homes and gardens covering the village in a foul stink.
At least five more people were shot with rubber-coated steel bullets. Maamoun Shtaiwi, 36, and Anna Johnson, a 30 year old ISM volunteer, were both shot in the head and taken to the hospital in Nablus where they were treated for their wounds. Maamoun’s injury required 13 stitches. One Palestinian activist was hit in the leg, and one in the chest, and an Israeli photographer had the camera on his helmet smashed.
17th April 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Bil’in, Occupied Palestine
Over 300 people attended the Prisoners’ Day demonstration in Bil’in. The Israeli army fired endless amounts of teargas and shot one person in the chest with a live ammunition.
After the prayer, protesters marched towards the apartheid wall and the illegal settlement of Modi’in, situated just outside of Bil’in. A truck loaded with a sound system led the chanting crowd. Most were either waving Palestinian flags, holding up banners in support of the Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons to mark Prisoners’ Day, or were holding posters of Bassem, a local who was killed six years ago by the Israeli army. As the march got closer to the wall, Israeli forces fired over 50 rounds of teargas canisters towards the protesters. The area was heavily clouded with this gas during most of the afternoon, which caused many to suffer from its inhalation. The shooting of this teargas also caused the dry grass between the olive trees to repeatedly catch fire.
During the protest, one person was shot with a rubber-coated steel bullet, while a 17 years old boy was shot in the chest with live ammunition. He was immediately taken to hospital by the ambulance. His condition is stable.
Bil’in clouded with teargas – photo by ISM
The 17th April is Prisoners’ Day in Palestine. Thousands of Palestinians are arrested arbitrarily on a daily basis by the Israeli forces, despite prohibition by international law. According to B’Tselem, “at the end of February 2015, 5,609 Palestinian security detainees and prisoners were held in Israeli prisons”. Since 1967, when Israel furthered its occupation to the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, an equivalent of approximately 20% of the total population in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), and 40% of all males have been detained (CEPR). While in prison, they are subject to wide-ranging violations of their rights and dignity. Such practices may include physical and psychological torture, deprivation of family visits, denial of access to lawyers and unlawful transfer out of the Occupied Palestinian Territories, among many other things. The Israeli occupying forces continue to violate the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, in particular against the Palestinian prisoners.
Today also marked the 6th anniversary of Bassem Abu Rameh’s death. Nicknamed Pheel, he was a much loved figure in the town of Bil’in. On the 17th April 2009, the Israeli army shot him with a teargas canister projectile which killed him shortly after. Aged 30, Pheel had been to all the non-violent protests, activities and creative actions against the apartheid wall in his town. Those who knew him remember him as a caring person who made everybody laugh and had the heart of a child, says Mohammad Khatib, a member of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements.
Bassem’s grave in Bil’in – photo by ISM
According to the report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs within the occupied Palestinian Territories, 442 people in the West Bank and 15 people in Gaza have been injured by the Israeli forces since the beginning of this year. On top of this, five people have been killed.
10th April 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Kafr Qaddum, Occupied Palestine
The Israeli military did not even wait for Kafr Qaddum’s Friday demonstration to start before firing at the crowd of demonstrators today. Before prayers had finished the Israeli military began firing at the demonstration with teargas, stun grenades and rubber-coated steel bullets. A 16-year-old child was hit in the head with a tear gas canister. He was taken to hospital with head injuries. International activists working with ISM have observed a pattern during recent Palestinian demonstrations of lethal violence starting at the beginning of the protest.
Israeli military bulldozer splattered with paint thrown by protesters
The Israeli military at this demonstration consisted of a mix of regular army and Border police. The military used two military bulldozers and a skunk truck to clear rubble and attempt to disperse the crowd. The protesters responded by disabling both bulldozers and skunk truck with bottles filled with paint throw at the windscreens of the vehicles.
Protesters defy the skunk truck
During the course of the demonstration Internationals witnessed a child of approximately 8 years old suffering from tear gas inhalation. Another 8 year old was wounded in his hand with a rubber-coated steel bullet.
The military moved into the village using .22 rifles and throwing stun grenades. The demonstration continued until the military withdrew.
Child hit by teargas canister taken away for medical treatment
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.
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.
Soldiers closing in on protesters
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.
30th March 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah team | Nabi Saleh, Occupied Palestine
On the 28th of March 2015, close to 200 protesters from all over the West Bank gathered in Nabi Saleh to protest the occupation in commemoration of Land Day. The protest was met with extreme violence as the Army and Border Police fired large amounts of tear gas and rubber-coated metal bullets as well as several rounds of M16 live ammunition at the protesters.
On March 30th 1976 a general strike and marches were arranged all over Palestinian cities within present-day Israel from the Naqab to the Galilee. The actions were a response to the Israeli Government’s expropriation of thousands of dunums of Palestinian land. During the actions six unarmed Palestinian citizens of Israel were killed, 100 wounded and hundreds more arrested. It was the first time since 1948 that the Palestinians within the borders Israel declared 1948 organised as a Palestinian national collective and the date is commemorated yearly with a series of protest all over Palestine. This year the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh marked Land Day on Saturday, the 28th of March.
Around 12 pm on Saturday, protesters from all over the West Bank, from Hebron to Kafr Qaddum, gathered in the village of Nabi Saleh. The demonstration was a local protest in commemoration of Land Day and of the two villagers Mustafa Tamimi and Rushdi Tamimi, who were murdered by the Israeli occupation soldiers.
Poster displayed at the rally before the march, showing the two residents of Nabi Saleh who have been killed by Israeli forces since protests in the village began – photo by Tamimi Press https://www.facebook.com/Tamimipresspage
After midday prayer protesters made their way down a main road of Nabi Saleh chanting and singing. On the outskirts of the village nine army and border police jeeps was gathered and as the demonstrators approached the road the about 60 soldiers and police rained tear gas on the unarmed protesters. Several people suffered from severe tear gas inhalation as the military pushed them back into the village.
Protesters chanting slogans against the occupation and marching down the road in Nabi Saleh, before the Israeli military opened fire with tear gas – photo by Tamimi Press
Undeterred by the initial choking barrage of tear gas, protesters marched towards the military once again, this time cutting across the farmland and fields outside the village. Many youths remaining on the hillside and threw stones and tear gas back towards the military.
Palestinian youth standing behind a wall of tear gas in Nabi Saleh. The illegal Israeli settlement of Hallamish is visible beyond the tear gas – photo by ISM
Israeli forces overpowered and arrested one unarmed Palestinian activist, as they continued to shoot tear gas up the into the hills. Israeli forces also threw stun grenades at unarmed Palestinians, international and Israeli activists. “They attacked me twice with stun grenades for no reason,” recalled one Palestinian photographer at the scene.
As the protest continued in the hills around Nabi Saleh protesters gathered again and threw back a large number of the tear gas canisters still being rained down on them by the army and border police. By resisting the tear gas and throwing the canisters back towards the military themselves the protesters managed to push the soldiers and police back down the hills towards the village gate. Here they took cover behind their jeeps, unable to disperse the demonstration.
Photo by Tamimi Press
As the protest continued the soldiers began firing rubber coated metal bullets at the protesters who took cover behind stones and trees as the bullets jumped off the road between them. The bullets came repeatedly and several protesters were hit and carried from the scene.
As demonstrators ducked from the rubber coated steel bullets the sound of M16’s began to fill the air as soldiers fired towards Palestinian protesters, children, internationals and journalists on the hill with live ammunition. However, the protest continued for about half an our longer until the military got back in their jeeps and moved back towards the checkpoint at the outskirts of the village.
After most of the demonstrators had returned to the village, some gathered and continued the protest on a hillside in Nabi Saleh, above the valley where several soldiers had stood watching the protest. The Israeli forces once again opened fire with live ammunition. Fifteen M16 bullets ricocheted of the stones on the ground very close to the protesters, landing near children, women and a photographer but fortunately not hitting anyone.
The Land Day protests continue all over the West Bank throughout the week.
