15 November 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
Earlier today, 7 Palestinian activists were arrested as part of the Freedom Rides attempt to board segregated buses going from the West Bank into occupied East Jerusalem.
Freedom Riders - Click for more images
Palestinians, Israelis and ISM activists waited at a bus stop outside the illegal settlement of Psagot, while four settler buses pulled up and drove away, refusing to open their doors. Israeli police and occupation army surrounded the activists, while a group of settlers massed to observe. Finally, a bus took the activists aboard, and the bus made its way to Hizmeh checkpoint, trailed by army jeeps and police vehicles.
At Hizmeh checkpoint, occupation forces stopped the bus, refusing to allow it to pass. During this time, border police attempted to enter the back of the bus and violently drag one Palestinian off the bus. When both attempts failed, border police commandeered the bus, and forced it to park by the side of the checkpoint.
After about half an hour, border police entered the bus, and forcibly dragged the six Palestinian Freedom
Riders off of the bus. “When they pulled them out of the bus, it was not gentle,” said ISM activist Crystal. “A girl next to me was almost crying.” Activist and lawyer Huwaida Arraf was rendered unconscious by the forcible removal.
The Palestinian activists were arrested and taken to Atarot prison, on the grounds that they had entered Jerusalem illegally.
Later that night, ISM activists held a demonstration outside of Atarot, demanding that occupation forces release the prisoners.
“I felt like I was witnessing history,” said ISM activist Wajed.
Ben Lorber is an activist with International Solidarity Movement and writer with Alternative Information Center.
by Alistair George 13 November 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
Three Palestinians were arrested and others were detained, beaten and pepper sprayed by the Israeli military in Al-Walajeh yesterday, as villagers attempted to prevent the detonation of explosives used to widen the route for the separation wall on the village’s land.
Previously, large explosions on 3 November2011 in the village had sent large rocks several metres into the air, damaging nearby houses and trees and endangering life. The explosions have damaged the foundations of nearby properties. Yesterday, protesters attempted to peacefully prevent a similar explosion from taking place.
Explosions, violence, and arrests in Al Walajeh – Click here for more images
At around 8am yesterday morning, villagers from Al-Walajeh, near Jerusalem, were working on an UN project to enlarge the village’s graveyard at the Western side end of the village. They discovered that the Israeli military and contractors were laying charges to explode rock and widen the path for the construction of the separation barrier on the village’s land. The barrier will completely encircle Al-Walajeh if completed. Access will be gained via a tunnel and checkpoint, manned by the Israeli military and open for a limited time each day.
A man from Al-Walajeh, who gave his name as ‘Abu Sultan’, explained that he “was the first to arrive at the scene– 10 days ago the officer of the DCO [District Coordination Offices] told us that they were not allowed to make any more explosions, and that if they tried we should stay on the land and prevent it – so the DCO should stand with us.”
Abu Sultan tried to take the dynamite from the ground but was pepper sprayed and detained for over 3 hours before being released. Another villager, Mustafa Odeh, was beaten and arrested by soldiers.
Another man, who did not want to give his name, was also pepper sprayed when he attempted to peacefully prevent the soldiers laying the charges.
“The soldiers told us to leave and they pushed us as if we were sheep. Without warning, they grabbed pepper spray and sprayed my eyes and mouth. I was taken to hospital where they washed my eyes and gave me oxygen. The soldiers prevented the ambulance reaching me, two men had to carry me…It still burns [five hours later] on my face and around my mouth, and it is difficult to breath. I am very upset and angry. I’m an old man and the soldiers are young boys, it is very disrespectful behaviour.”
After the men discovered the military laying charges, villagers gathered to demand that they cease their agenda. By 11:00 AM a crowd of around 30 Palestinians and several international observers and journalists had gathered at the site of the charges. At 11:20 AM approximately 20 Israeli soldiers and contractor security guards began to roughly push and barge the crowd up the hill, away from the site.
Protesters voiced their disapproval but offered no physical resistance; however, the Israeli military became increasingly violent. After attempting to grab and arrest some Palestinian protesters, several people tumbled down a steep verge; one Palestinian, his face streaked orange with pepper spray, was arrested, while another fled the scene. The military deployed pepper spray and began to strike the peaceful demonstrators.
Sheerin Alaraj, a popular resistance activist from Al-Walajeh was pepper sprayed and blood ran from a cut on her face. A 38 year old woman, ‘Nadia’, was pepper sprayed in the face and was also taken to the hospital after losing consciousness.
The Palestinian academic Mazin Qumsiyeh was also on scene filming the protest. He was arrested and dragged to a nearby military vehicle by the Israeli border police. A witness, who did not want to be named, stated that “Mazin was filming with his video camera and the soldiers wanted us to retreat. They could have asked us to retreat but they just singled him out. It was intentional. I was next to him, doing the same thing, and they didn’t want to arrest me.”
An Al-Walajeh resident, who gave her name as “Fadwa,” said that the Israeli soldiers “have to be more human and understand our feelings, they can’t just cause explosions. They said that the explosion today would be small, but you can’t trust them.”
After soldiers had cleared the area, they fired two tear gas canisters across the valley where only some women and small children were visible. At around 12:30 PM they detonated a single charge, sending a cloud of rock and debris high into the air. Bulldozers then began work to clear the shattered rock for the path of the wall.
Residents of Al-Walajeh said that although the explosion today was relatively small, it was still carried out within a few metres of the village’s graveyard and several olive trees. Previous explosions have damaged foundations of nearby houses.
A resident, who lives near to the proposed route of the wall, said that the explosion on 3 November 2011 endangered life in the village as the blast sent large rocks a distance of several hundred metres. Some rocks were around30 cm long, weighing several kilograms;
“Stones fell right beside my uncle’s house. When they make explosions it’s like an earthquake, the house shakes.”
Four explosions had taken part in this area of Al-Walajeh in recent weeks, and there have been explosions to clear debris for the wall in other parts of the village.
A woman from Al-Walaja, who did not wish to be named, said that the explosion on 3 November threw large rocks several metres into the sky.
“Stones fell onto my house; the children were in the house and were very scared. Plants and olive trees were damaged on my land.”
The DCO (the Israeli body responsible for coordinating administrative activities in the occupied territories, including construction) was unwilling to provide a reaction to yesterday’s incident.
Following the Six Day War in 1967, much of Al-Walaja’s land was given to the nearby Israeli settlements of Gilo and Har Gilo, which are considered illegal under international law. A 2011 report by the UNRWA (United Nations Relief Works Agency) revealed that private investors announced plans in 2004 to build an additional settlement called Givat Yael, consisting of 14,000 housing units. This settlement would expropriate around 60% of the territory of the West Bank part of Al Walajeh.
Israel claims that the separation wall is necessary to prevent attacks on its territory. However, in its detailed analysis of the Israeli legal justification of the wall, the International Court of Justice found that the conditions necessary to justify the movement restrictions imposed by the Barrier were not met. Work began on the wall in Al-Walajeh in April 2010 and has progressed at a furious pace, with significant sections of concrete, several metres high, now in place. Residents estimate that, at the current rate of construction, the wall will be completed in 2012. Rather than following the Green Line demarcating the West Bank, the proposed route of the wall in Al-Walajeh cuts deep into the village’s land. According to the UNOCHA (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), between 4-5000 dunums (1 dunum =1000 square metres) of Al-Walajeh’s land lies outside the route of the wall.
If the wall is completed, and the village is entirely encircled in concrete walls and metal fences, the restricted access to the village will drastically curtail normal life in Al-Walajeh as over 2000 inhabitants will be prevented from travelling freely to work or to access essential health and education services.
Alistair George is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
Inspired by the Freedom Rides of the US Civil Rights Movement Palestinian activists will attempt to board segregated Israeli settler buses to occupied East Jerusalem
Groups of Palestinian Freedom Riders will attempt to board segregated settler buses heading to Jerusalem through the occupied West Bank this Tuesday November 15, in an act of civil disobedience that takes its inspiration from the US Civil Rights Movement Freedom Riders aim to challenge Israel’s apartheid policies, the ban on Palestinians’ access to Jerusalem, and the overall segregated reality created by a military and settler occupation that is the cornerstone of Israel’s colonial regime. While parallels exist between occupied Palestine and the segregated U.S. South in terms of the underlying racism and the humiliating treatment suffered then by blacks and now by Palestinians, there are also significant differences. In the 1960s U.S. South, black people had to sit in the back of the bus; in occupied Palestine, Palestinians are not even allowed ON the bus nor on the roads that the buses travel on, which are built on stolen Palestinian land.
In undertaking this action Palestinians do not seek the desegregation of settler buses, as the presence of these colonizers and the infrastructure that serves them is illegal and must be dismantled. As part of their struggle for freedom, justice and dignity, Palestinians demand the ability to be able to travel freely on their own roads, on their own land, including the right to travel to Jerusalem.
Palestinian activists also aim to expose two of the companies that profit from Israel’s apartheid policies and encourage global boycott of and divestment from them. The Israeli Egged and French Veolia bus companies operate dozens of segregated lines that run through the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, many of them subsidized by the state. Both companies are also involved in the Jerusalem Light Rail, a train project that links illegal settlements in East Jerusalem to the western part of the city. By facilitating population transfer into occupied Palestinian territory, Egged and Veolia are actively and knowingly complicit in Israel’s settlement enterprise, which the International Court of Justice has determined to be a breach of international law, and particularly Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibiting an occupying power from transferring part of its population into occupied territory.
This Tuesday, Palestinian Freedom Riders will head to Jewish-only bus stops in the West Bank and attempt to board the settler buses. Palestinians understand that this act of nonviolent disobedience may result in violent attacks and even death at the hands of Israeli settlers that are to Israel what the Klu Klux Klan was to the Jim Crow South, or the authorities that protect them. Nonetheless, the Freedom Riders believe that this act of civil resistance is necessary to draw the attention of the world to the immorality of Israel’s occupation and apartheid system as well as to compel justice-loving people to take a stand and divest from Egged, Veolia, and all companies that enable and profit from it.
The Freedom Riders will be joined by activists from all around the world who will stage activities in their cities that highlight the systematic oppression of Palestinians and the need to divest from Egged and Veolia.
The buses that the Freedom Riders will be boarding are operated by the Egged, the largest Israeli public transportation company, and by the French transnational company Veolia. Both companies are complicit in Israel’s violations of international law due to their involvement in and profiting from Israeli’s illegal settlement infrastructure. Palestinian Freedom Riders endorse the call for boycotting both companies, as well as all others involved in Israel’s violations of human rights and international law.[1]
In July 2011, an Egged subsidiary won a public tender to run bus services in the Waterland region of the Netherlands, north of Amsterdam. The company makes money from trampling on the rights of Palestinians and has been a target of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign, which is endorsed by an overwhelming majority of Palestinian civil society. The Freedom Riders call on the people of the Netherlands to sever all dealings with companies, like Egged, involved in human rights violations.
Veolia, has been a target of an international divestment campaign or running bus lines through the West Bank connecting settlements to Jerusalem and for its involvement in the Jerusalem Light Rail which connects Israel’s illegal settlements in and around occupied East Jerusalem to the western part of the city, thereby directly servicing the settlement enterprise.[2]
Over 42 percent of Palestinian land in the West Bank has been taken over for the building of Jewish settlements and their associated regime[3] (including the wall which was declared illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004), depriving local communities of access to their water resources as well as agricultural lands. Settling Israelis in the occupied Palestinian territory constitutes a war crime according to the Fourth Geneva Convention[4] and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.[5]
The occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip constitute only 22 percent of the Palestinian homeland from which over 750,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed in 1948 when the state of Israel was created. Since then, Palestinian refugees have been languishing in refugee camps and other places of exile, denied the right to return to their homes.
[4] See “Israel’s settlement policy is a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention,” The Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Gaza, highlighting the relevant articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention to support the determination that settlements are a war crime, at http://www.pchrgaza.org/Intifada/Settlements.conv.htm; see also “Demolitions, new settlements in East Jerusalem could amount to war crimes – UN expert,” UN News Centre, June 29, 2010, at http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=35175&Cr=Palestin&Cr1.
[5] Article 8(2)(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court prohibits “[t]he transfer, directly or indirectly, by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”
On November 15th, Palestinian activists will attempt to board segregated Israeli settler public transport headed to occupied East Jerusalem in an act of civil disobedience inspired by the Freedom Riders of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. Fifty years after the U.S. Freedom Riders staged mixed-race bus rides through the roads of the segregated American South, Palestinian Freedom Riders will be asserting their right for liberty and dignity by disrupting the military regime of the Occupation through peaceful civil disobedience. Organizers say that this ride to demand liberty, equality, and access to Jerusalem is the first of many to come. The Freedom Riders will be riding Egged and Veolia buses. Veolia runs many transportation services in local US communities, and is the target of many BDS campaigns. This provides a great opportunity for local Boycott or Dump Veolia campaigns to have a creative action that ties directly to Palestinian-led direct action.
Palestinian Freedom Riders are asking US activists to step up alongside them, taking to the streets (or buses!) to show our solidarity with these courageous and historic protests.
Learn more about separate and unequal transportation systems here.
The resources on this webpage outlines some easy ways to organize solidarity actions in your local community. If you have any questions or would like some support planning, please be in touch! Email: stefanie@jvp.org
Resources for Solidarity:
Click on image to download the toolkit for acting in solidarity with the November 2011 Freedom Rides campaign inspired by those of the Civil Rights Movement.Click on image to download a high-res copy of the Freedom Rider Cartoon. Cartoon by Ethan Heitner.Click on icon to listen to an mp3 recording of the Freedom Riders song. Lyrics are available in the toolkit.
9 November 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
In the past three years Burin has faced increased settler violence. This small village of approximately 3,000 people deal with a constant threat of settler attacks or Israeli army harassment. Three settlements surround Burin: Yitzhar, Bracha, and Givt Arousa. The residents of these illegal settlements make it clear that they will do whatever it takes to force the Palestinians out of their homes. Their criminal acts range from burning olive trees, stoning farmers, and shooting live ammunition at Palestinians.
Burin surviving the olive harvest – Click here for more information
The Burin people have already lost over 2,000 olive trees since April by settler fires. In order to ensure that the trees are ruined the settlers alter their attack by the time of day to make their violent crimes less visible. The burning of trees is usually done during the day, while the cutting down of trees is usually done at night. During the warmer months, the settlers mostly burn down trees because they know the fire will spread quickly due to the heat. The people of Burin are always watching and waiting for the next inevitable hate crime to occur.
There has not been a single settler attack on Burin in over a month, which is really unusual. The last period without any attacks lasted for 60 days. This “peaceful” period was broken with a day full of settler violence. The people are anticipating the next attack. They do not know when, but that it will happen. In addition to waiting on the next attack, they are still waiting on the Israeli court ruling of whether a mosque in Burin should be demolished for disturbing the peace in the settlements during the call for prayer. The air in Burin is filled with anxiety for what is to come in the near future.
Burin today is still standing tall and strong despite the many obstacles that suffocate daily life in the village.
Amal is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name changed).
On November 15th, 
