Tag: Rubber-coated steel bullets - Page 24 - International Solidarity Movement

Video- Journalists’ protest violently supressed by Israeli forces at Qalandiya checkpoint

18th July 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah Team | Qalandiya, Occupied Palestine

Yesterday, around 150 Palestinian journalists protested at Qalandiya checkpoint demanding freedom of movement for journalists. Israeli forces violently suppressed the demonstration by throwing sound bombs and shooting rubber coated steel bullets at journalists, resulting in five people injured.

At 12am, journalists arrived on buses from across the West Bank, gathering at Qalandiya checkpoint to protest against the restriction of movement and the lack of recognition of their international press cards by Israel.

Palestinian journalists showing their International press cards (Photo by ISM)

More participants gradually arrived at the roundabout where the rally was taking place. Journalists sang chants demanding freedom of movement for journalists. One journalist said: “we are journalists recognized by the International Federation of Journalists and hold international press cards but we cannot exercise our job freely. Israel does not allow us to work in Jerusalem or Haifa while Israeli journalists can work everywhere”.

Israeli border police officers soon arrived at the roundabout and started to violently push protesters backwards, throwing sound bombs directly at demonstrators. Although the crowd dispersed, the journalists soon rallied again, continuing chanting and protesting. Once again, Israeli border police, now joined by soldiers, pushed back the crowd throwing more sound bombs and then shooting rubber coated steel bullets from a short distance.

Steadfast demonstrators remained at the roundabout for ten more minutes until at around 12:45pm, the protest was finished. Five people suffered minor injuries from sound bombs thrown at their feet and were treated by medical personnel at the scene.

Palestinian journalists are constantly targeted by Israeli forces. According to the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms, during the first six months of 2013, there were 78 occasions where Israeli forces attacked Palestinian media in the form of physical abuse, arrest, detention, prevention from coverage, and prosecution.

Mousa Rimawi, general director of MADA, stated at a MADA press conference in Ramallah two days ago:

“Media freedoms status in Occupied Palestine still raises concerns in terms of the numbers and types of violations committed against Palestinian journalists. Violations against Palestinian journalists are one of the highest globally, and are life-threatening, where the Palestinian journalists are concerned for their life and safety, especially those who cover peaceful demonstrations and the popular resistance activities against the occupation, settlement, and the apartheid wall. Regardless of the threat, Palestinian journalists never back down and continue to exercise their profession and duty, and they have earned many appreciations and awards”

“The Israeli Occupation insistence to continue its attacks on media freedoms is due to its desire to blur the truth and hide its constant attacks on the Palestinian people’s rights is a main reason for the increase of its violations against media freedoms during the past years. Another reason for this increase is the official International community forgiving attitude towards the continues and rising Israeli violations against media freedoms”

Israeli Border Police officer pushing back a journalist (Photo by ISM)

Israeli forces throwing sound bombs at journalists (Photo by ISM)

The weekly demonstration continue in Ni’lin while harassment and night raids increase

13th July 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah Team | Ni’lin, Occupied Palestine

On Friday, 13 July, around 30 people gathered for the Friday demonstration in the outskirts of Ni’lin village. After finishing prayers Palestinians marched towards the Apartheid Wall that has annexed the land of the village, along with internationals. From the beginning of the protest, tear-gas canisters and stun grenades were fired by the Israeli army and after about an hour 30 soldiers broke out from behind the wall intending to arrest the demonstrators who pulled back into the nearby olive grove.

After leading a chase for about 50 meters into the fields that lasted approximately for one and a half hours the soldiers retreated back behind the wall and the protest continued. More teargas canisters were shot by the soldiers beyond the wall and at this point also rubber coated steel bullets were shot towards the demonstrators.

The protest lasted approximately two hours, no arrests were made but one international was injured while running from Israeli soldiers who were arbitrarily shooting teargas and steel bullets and chasing after people.

Protesters say the demonstration this week was shorter than usual because of the Ramadan, however it has been no less intense as soldiers have been crossing the wall intending to make arrests for the last three weeks’ demonstrations. Ni’lin has experienced a wave of harassment since the spring and soldiers have been continuously invading the village arresting people. Many of these arrests occurred during night raids during which soldiers invade Palestinian homes.

Ni’lin village has lost more that 50,000 dunums of its land to the occupation and the apartheid wall that was build in 2008. Since then the people of Ni’lin have been protesting against the wall and the occupation. These protests have been suppressed with extreme violence by the Israeli army, resulting in the killing of five people, including a ten year old boy.

Protesters facing teargas in front of the annexation wall (Photo by ISM)

Tear gas cloud spreading through the fields of Ni’lin (Photo by ISM)

Soldiers invading the fields of Ni'lin, trying to arrest protesters (Photo by ISM) — Soldiers invading the fields of Ni’lin, trying to arrest protesters (Photo by ISM)

Settler attack fended off by vigilant residents of Azzun

29th June 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus Team | Azzun, Occupied Palestine

On June 18, settlers hung up a banner in the town of Azzun, threatening to take over the town. Later that day, the town was attacked by settlers, supported by the Israeli army. Local residents successfully fended off the attack through massive mobilizations.

The town of Azzun is the home of about 10.000 Palestinians. It is located in the northern West Bank district of Qalquiliya, close to several settlements. On Tuesday 18^th of June, settlers secretly entered the town and proceeded to hang up a banner at the town entrance stating that “On Tuesday, the village will become ours.” The unconcealed threat was signed by “The Women of Samaria”. The banner was quickly removed but the threat of a violent take-over was still present, as would become evident some hours later

224335 — Banner hung up by settlers (Photo by Ma’an News Agency)

During the late afternoon of the day that the ominous banner was put up, settlers gathered outside the eastern town-entrance for what appeared to be an attempt at fulfilling the prophecy. Luckily, the day before, attentive villagers had intercepted online information that settlers were mobilizing for a lunge against the city on this date and so they were prepared.

About three months earlier, the town had been attacked by around fifty young settlers who entered the town through the eastern-most checkpoint. After this, they proceeded to enter nearby Palestinian houses, throwing stones and empty bottles while shouting that “this is our land”. In spite of being barraged with tear gas and sound bombs by the occupying military forces, which came to the assistance of the attacking settlers, the residents of Azzun managed to fend off the assault. As a result of this experience three months ago, the locals now knew how to react to what looked like a new attempt at a violent assault on the town.

As soon as settlers started gathering outside the eastern-most checkpoint of the town, residents rushed to the site, effectively blocking the entrance to the town for both settlers and the collaborating soldiers that were accompanying them. For about six hours the residents were attacked with tear gas, sound bombs and rubber-coated steel bullets by the occupation forces. These attempts by the occupying forces to help the settlers enter the town left several wounded. In the end, the perseverance of the residents of Azzun caused the attacking settlers to retreat without having entered the town. The soldiers, however, returned the following night to continue harassing the inhabitants of the town.

These evident attempts at forcefully taking over the city are not the only abuses the residents of Azzun face every day. Because of the status of the town as a major traffic hub for the surrounding villages and towns, Azzun is routinely submitted to checkpoint shut-downs. In accordance with this, the main checkpoint of the town was completely shut down between the 15^th and the 20^th of June.

The checkpoint-shut-downs have the purpose of severely prolonging the transport time for anyone hoping to access one of the cities of the region, with the direct consequences for those in urgent need of medical attention of a kind not accessible in the immediate area.

Apart from these shut-downs, the military has a practice of arresting young boys on various arbitrary charges. While in custody, the boys are pressured into signing forms in Hebrew being informed that this is a prerequisite for being released. What the boys don’t know is that the forms are in fact made-up testimonies, denouncing other boys of taking part in illegal activities. This practice is adopted by military as a sort of divide-and-rule strategy where released boys and their families are under constant suspicion of being collaborator and informants, thereby playing residents out against each other. The local boys’ school can also confirm a correlation between the time of the year and the amount of arrested teenage boys. There seems to be a surge in the amount of arrest as soon as the exam-period gets closer meaning that a lot of these young men are prevented from taking their mandatory 12^th grade exams.

The ISM will continue to monitor the situation in the town that is also being closely followed by another group of internationals, EAPPI.

988631_10151474199257227_673337611_n — Settlers gather outside the entrance to Azzun

Army violently represses Kafr Qaddum demonstration

21th June 2013 | International Women’s Peace Service | Kafr Qaddum , Occupied Palestine

On Friday, June 21, the residents of Kafr Qaddum gathered for the weekly demonstration following the Friday prayer. Many residents were prevented from attending the prayer, as 60 soldiers entered the village before the demonstration even began.

Protesters having much more fun than the Army (Photo by IWPS)

At approximately 11:30, people in the village noticed soldiers entering from the main road closest to Qedumim settlement. They quickly gathered to keep the soldiers away, building defensive stone barricades along the main road. As they faced-off with the army, Israeli soldiers repeatedly pointed their guns at the crowd in order to scare people back to the center of the village.

Nearly one hour later, the soldiers descended down the main road, firing many tear gas canisters and sound bombs at the fleeing crowd. Many people suffered from tear gas inhalation and the surrounding shops and houses also filled up with toxic gas.

At 13:40, the army entered the village again, led by a bulldozer, which cleared away some of the barricades and provided cover for the approaching soldiers, who continued to shoot tear gas at the demonstrators.

At 14:00, one protestor was shot in the back with a plastic-coated steel bullet and was carried away to receive medical attention. Ten minutes later, a camera man and a correspondent for Palestine TV were violently beaten and arrested by the army, showing the Israeli military’s clear disregard for freedom of the press and a journalist’s right to report the news. All of their equipment was confiscated and throw into a nearby field.

Car window shot out by Israeli soldiers (Photo by IWPS)

Demonstrators shouted for the men’s’ release to no avail. Twenty minutes later, two more young men were shot with plastic coated steel bullets, one in the chest and another in the arm and the stomach.

Approaching 15:00, yet another young man was shot in the hand with a plastic-coated steel bullet, severely cutting his fingers. Following his injury, the army raided the village for the last time of the day when nearly 30 foot soldiers chased protesters back to the center of the village, firing tear gas and sound bombs.

The Israeli army presence continued into the early evening and at 16:00, the group of fifty protestors celebrated their daily acts of resistance by eating ice cream, dancing and singing in front of the 30 remaining soldiers and border police.

UPDATE: Two arrested in Nabi Saleh weekly protest

7th June 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah Team | Nabi Saleh, Occupied Palestine

SECOND UPDATE: The two boys, Tamim & Mo’men have now been released.

UPDATE: Tamim (19) and Mo’men (16) Tamimi are currently under interrogation and will remain in prison until at least Sunday.

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Today’s weekly protest in Nabi Saleh was met with skunk water and rubber coated steel bullets. In addition, two people, one of them a child, were arrested.

After midday prayer, around sixty Palestinians, together with Israeli and international activists, marched as usual from the centre of the village towards the stolen spring across the main road.

Demonstrators marching along the road towards the spring (Photo by ISM)

As protesters were building stone barricades along the road to prevent Israeli forces from invading the village, a skunk water truck and two jeeps appeared at the scene. The truck ran over the barricades and drove along the road spraying demonstrators with foul smelling water. Israeli soldiers and border police officers shot several rounds of rubber coated steel bullets injuring one protesters in the right side of the abdomen. After a while, Israeli forces and the truck retreated and protesters took over the road again. As confrontations between Palestinian youths and Israeli forces continued, three jeeps and the skunk water truck chased the protesters up the road spraying the houses and people.

At around 2:30pm, the bulk of the protesters left the area except for a few Palestinian youths who were still on the hilltop throwing stones. Suddenly, when people were resting at the petrol station, four army and border police jeeps joined by the skunk water truck, invaded the village once again and sprayed everything in their way. One adult and one child from the nearby village of Deir Netham, Tamim (19) and Mo’men (16) Tamimi were arrested and taken into the jeeps. See video of the arrest here.

The village of Nabi Saleh has been demonstrating against the theft of the natural spring and the occupation since December 2009. Israeli forces violently suppress the weekly Friday protests by shooting tear gas canisters, skunk water, sound bombs, rubber coated steel bullets and even live ammunition at protesters. Two people have been killed, Mustafa and Rushdi Tamimi, and many others severely injured. Bassem Tamimi, from Nabi Saleh, has spent 17 months in Israeli jails, merely for being a prominent activist at the protests. After more than three year and despite the repression, Nabi Saleh continues to fight against the injustices of a brutal military Israeli occupation.

Injured protester being treated on spot by Red Crescent personnel (Photo by ISM) — Injured protester being treated on the spot by Red Crescent personnel (Photo by ISM)

Israeli border police officer grabbing the arrested boys (Photo by TPTamimi Press)