Tag: Settlers

A new stage for West Bank popular resistance

by Dylan Collins

28 January 2012 | The Palestine Monitor

In a hazy room, clouded with cigarette smoke and steam from hot syrup-sweat tea, residents of Kafr ad-Dik and its neighboring villages, along with Palestinian, Israeli, and international activists, excitedly gathered together waiting for the midday prayer to finish. The twenty-seventh of January marked the fourth Friday during which the village of Kafr ad-Dik has staged a nonviolent protest against the annexation of its agricultural land by the Israeli Occupation Authority (IOA).

The village of Kafr ad-Dik, and the greater Salfit District, is located on top of the largest water table in the West Bank, thus providing it with some of the most fertile land in the region. Home to generations upon generations of farmers, Kafr ad-Dik, and the neighboring villages of Rafat, Balut, and Bruqin, have had the majority of their agricultural land stripped away from them in the last ten years by the IOA. In turn unemployment and poverty rates in the farming-based community have skyrocketed.

In a village of which 99% of the inhabitants are olive farmers, the IOA’s annexation of the majority Kafr ad-Dik’s groves has been devastating.

Approximately 4,000 dunams of vital agricultural land, shared by the four villages, has been appropriated by the IOA over the past ten years. Last month, the IOA significantly increased its total of annexed land in the area when it earmarked an additional 1,000 dunums for the alleged expansion of the nearby illegal Israeli outost, Ale Zahav. Kafr ad-Dik residents, however, are convinced this latest annexation of land will be allocated to the construction of an entirely new outpost.

Left with no land to farm, and consequently no source of income, Kafr ad-Dik’s farmers have been forced to either rent out small plots from farmers who still have access to their lands in neighboring villages, or work their own land, now owned by the illegal Israeli settlements, for a paltry wage of around $13 a day.

Popular resistance, in the form of weekly nonviolent marches and demonstrations, has become increasingly commonplace in many West Bank villages since the beginning of the IOA’s construction of the Separation Wall and its subsequent seizure of Palestinian land. Villages such as Bil’in, Ni’lin and, more recently, Nabi Saleh have been the vanguard of the West Banks popular resistance movement over the last few years, with the media giving little to no focus to villages outside the spotlight.

As illegal Israeli settlements continue their unhindered expansion with impunity, robbing Palestinians of their land and livelihood on a daily basis, similar popular resistance demonstrations are popping up in villages all over the West Bank. In order for the new popular resistance efforts to be effective, it is imperative that media sources lend their ears more equitably to the growing number of villages cooperatively combating the occupation.

Nasfar Qufesh, the coordinator for the Popular Committee in the Salfit District, is insistent upon the fact that widespread, disciplined popular nonviolent resistance, represents the strongest means by which West Bank villages can resist the occupation. He says the aim of popular resistance is to, “create awareness in western countries, particularly America, of how, and for what purposes, their hard earned tax money is used.”

The Israeli Occupation Force’s (IOF) blatant use of excessive force during the weekly nonviolent protests throughout the West Bank, via mass amounts of tear gas, rubber bullets, sound grenades, and live ammunition, is an excellent example of American tax dollars hard at work.  The US furnishes Israel with over three billion dollars a year in military aid alone, most of which is made up of non-repayable grants.

Although still in its nascent stages, the popular resistance in Kafr ad-Dik is growing. Community leaders predict similar movements to fan out across West Bank villages as a main method of confronting the occupation and its confiscation of their land.

“We die a little bit inside us each time”: 2 more homes demolished in Bedouin village of Umm Al Kheer

by Tom

26 January 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Israel demolished the homes of two families in the Bedouin village of Um Al-Kheer in the South Hebron Hills last week, on Wednesday January 25th.

Demolitions in Umm al Kheer - Click here for more images

The demolition team arrived with a bulldozer at 9:00 in the morning together Israeli soldiers and police. Villagers reported a chaotic situation of shouting and screaming and extremely aggressive behaviour on the part of the Israeli demolition team, soldiers and police. A video of part the demolition was taken by the Italian group Operation Dove:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTY_wYlzxdQ&m

An international observer for the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israeli (EAPPI) who arrived on the scene later the same day, described hearing the news as “the message we had feared for two months.”  A video from later that Wednesday can be found on the Norwegian-language blog, showing  village residents searching through the rubble, looking for belongings.

Um Al-Kheer is a so-called “unrecognised village” of 150 people, situated next to the settlement of Karmel. Its Bedouin residents originally settled in the village after they had been forced out of the Neguib (Negev) in 1948.

One of the houses belonged to a widow and her nine children, who was left crying for their lost home. The second house was home to a young couple and their three children.

Um Al-Kheer has been repeatedly subject to Israeli house demolitions. The events of January 25th were the fourth such assault on the village since February 2007 and brings the number of Israeli demolitions in the tiny village to a total of sixteen houses and one restroom. The most recent previous demolition was in October 2011.

Village resident Eid Suleymann said of the demolitions, “We die a little bit inside us each time.”

The primary reason for the demolitions is the adjacent settlement of Karmel. Part of the Israeli excuse for the demolitions is the security of the settlers,  but residents feel that the actual purpose is to  “clear this area of people”and to expand the already-growing settlement into it. This settlement is considered illegal under international law.Only a few metres away from the village and the rubble of the house, house construction can be seen under way in Karmel. Several cranes and newly or partly built houses are clearly visible.

While the story of Um al-Kheer is one of tremendous suffering and of inhuman and racist behaviour on the part of the Israel state, it should however also be regarded as an outstanding example of  endurance and solidarity. A temporary metal shack has already been constructed to house the widow and her children. Palestinians and Israeli activists from Ta’ayush worked through the rain on Saturday January 28th to begin rebuilding of the houses’ stone walls.

Tom is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Eight homes ordered to be demolished in Khalit Al-Dar

by Jack English

17 January 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On January 4th, an Israeli military commander served 8 demolition orders in the town of Khalit Al-Dar, just south of the city of Al-Khalil, also known as Hebron.

Suleiman Abu Snina, from Khalit Al-Dar, displays the demolition order he received.

The reason given for issuing demolition orders to the families is that they have built additions onto their homes without Israeli-issued building permits.  In accordance with the 1994 Oslo agreements, building permits in the town are issued by the municipality of Al-Khalil, which had issued the necessary permits to the families.  However Israeli authorities maintain that permits may only be issued by the Israeli government, which has, since the Israeli occupation of the West Bank began in 1967, only issued one building permit for the town, in 1980.

Khalit Al-Dar is a small, impoverished town, and the residents are mostly laborers and farmers.  When the demolition orders are carried out, approximately 60 of them will be displaced from their homes.  Other demolitions have recently happened here, in both 2007 and 2009.

The pressure on the residents of Khalit Al-Dar manifests itself in other ways as well. The large water collection basin in the town remains unfinished after 15 years, as the Israeli government will not allow the construction of wells in all of the West Bank. This leaves all Palestinians at the mercy of Macarot, an Israeli water company, for their entire water supply.

A view of Khalit Al-Dar

By refusing to issue building permits, towns cannot grow, and as families grow there is less and less space to live in without building extensions to their homes.

Khalit Al-Dar is surrounded by six nearby illegal Israeli settlements, Hagai, Kyriat Arba, Carmel, Arsina, Susya, and Ma’on.  Once the residents of Khalit Al-Dar are out of the way, more settlements can be built, connecting the existing ones and creating more Israeli “facts on the ground” that work to solidify the stranglehold of the occupation.

Jack English is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

What happened on the 10th of January in Jericho

14 January 2012 | Mahmoud Zwahre, Al Ma’sara Village

I would like to thank all of you who stand with us, who have showed amazing support these past three days and demanded our immediate release from Israeli military jail. I hope that we will be able to free Omar Dar Ayoub from Nabi Saleh soon, as well. Although Omar was arrested together with the other four of us on Wednesday, only a short time after finally having been released from military jail as part of the “prisoner swap”, Omar, alone, was remanded until Sunday. We need Omar out NOW, together with all political prisoners.

Unlike Omar, Anwar Abu Mousa, the young woman from Ramallah who was arrested first, ‘Azmi al Shyouhki from Hebron, Khaled Tamimi from Nabi Saleh and I were released Thursday night, after the first hearing of the “case” against us in military court. During the hearing, the prosecution had argued vehemently for the need to extend our imprisonment – on the grounds that, for various reasons, they had allegedly not been able to conclude the interrogations and generally needed more time to prepare the case against us. Fortunately, our lawyer was nonetheless able to secure the release of the four of us – on the condition that we each pay 3000NIS in cash as bail, sign guarantees of another 10,000 NIS that we would be forced to pay should we fail to show up in military court, and the signature of a third person also guaranteeing that we will show up (as if there was any way we could evade that in the occupied Palestinian West Bank).

No charges were formally brought against us yet, but during the hearing, the prosecution accused all five of us of having “assaulted” soldiers and of “illegal assembly”. In spite of ample video footage and other evidence to the contrary, the prosecution alleged that ‘Azmi, Khaled and I had pushed soldiers, while Anwar had allegedly slapped one soldier and Omar kicked four of them, as if highly armed Israeli soldiers in an equally armed military unit were likely targets for unarmed and handcuffed Palestinian civilians.

Of course, accusing us of assault is an easy and efficient way for the prosecution to criminalize us, but after all that had happened in the previous 30 hours or so, it was highly surreal to listen to the prosecutor’s allegation. For a moment, it almost sounded like we should organize a campaign of solidarity with the soldiers.

What actually happened is this:

Early Tuesday morning, our convoy set off from the center of Jericho. Our plan was to drive together to Ramallah on “Road 1”, one of the so-called “bypass roads” that Israeli authorities illegally build on Palestinian land to provide infrastructure for the equally illegal settlements.

Although they run right all over the occupied West Bank, in and around our privately owned lands, the “Israeli Civil Administration” claims full control on these roads, but “allows” us West Bank Palestinians to use them alongside the settlers. In practice, this means that Israeli traffic police not only patrols on these roads, but actually claims authority on them, frequently stopping us and issuing arbitrary fines; all along these roads, Israeli settlers wait at bus stops of ordinary Israeli bus companies, only a few meters away from the make-shift bus stops that we are allowed to use; attacks through settlers or pull-overs through Israeli military are common.

We had intended to drive up to Ramallah via one of these roads, and only then use some of those roads that are accessible to Jewish settlers only and from which we are barred. But we didn’t even make it that far.

On our way to Ramallah, before reaching “Road 1” which, according to their bizarre military law, we are allowed to use, we were stopped by Israeli armed forces. We were told that we would not be allowed to continue our trip while displaying the Palestinian flag – an act that, since the “Oslo accords” of 1993, is no longer considered illegal by Israeli authorities. About 300m away, illegal settlers were driving past unhindered, displaying the Israeli flag in the occupied Palestinian West Bank.

As you might have seen in the many videos of that day, we were angered and outraged at this arbitrary denial of our freedom of movement. We had come to exercise some of those rights that are regularly denied to us, and we were not going to walk away with yet more of our rights stripped away. We refused to turn back or to take down our flags.

In the ensuing argument, Awar was suddenly and very arbitrarily arrested. When Omar tried to prevent this absurd arrest, he, too, was arrested, shorty followed by ‘Azmi. At that point, IOF took both my ID and the ID of my friend Naim Manar, and ordered us to move to the side while they made checked information on us. I realized that they were going to arrest me as well and that my car was stuck on the road, right in front of the soldiers, so I handed the car keys to Khaled Tamimi, and caught a ride back to Jericho. I later learned that they then arrested Khaled (who – after having been released together with us Thursday evening – was rearrested later that night during a raid, together with 17 year old Anan and 20 year old Mahdi, and then again released yesterday evening while Anan and Mahdi remain in prison). The army also prevented anyone else from moving my car.

30 minutes after I left, the Israeli “intelligence” office began calling me on my mobile phone and threatening that I would be put on the “wanted” list if I did not turn myself in immediately. Knowing the limited options available to us in occupied Palestine, I opted to go back in the company of a lawyer.

As soon as I arrived, I was handcuffed and blindfolded and taken to the “DCO” in Jericho where I was kept until I was brought to the settlement in Ma’ale Adumim. After Anwar, Omar, ‘Azmi, Khaled and I were interrogated, we were then transferred to the military prison in Ofer, which marked our official arrest.

This is only one more example for the blatant disregards of any Palestinian rights in the entire Israeli system, including its so-called legal one. Khaled, like so many other Palestinian women, men, and children, remains in military jail because of the arbitrary and criminal politics of an entity that is allowed to act with total impunity. This has to stop!

Kufr ad-Dik resists by the hundreds

by Jonathon

7 January 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

The residents of Kufr ad-Dik sent a clear and strong message of resistance to the Israeli authorities,  just the second of planned weekly demonstrations in the village thus far.

There were approximately 250 residents who attended the demonstration, with a number of Israeli and international activists also present to resist the planned further expansion of  several illegal settlements besieging the village. Should construction go ahead, it will reportedly take 80% of the land belonging to Kufr Ad-Dik. To add further insult to the injustice and illegality of this situation, the Israeli authorities have denied Kufr Ad-Dik permission to build any new homes on their own land as the village is in Area C.

The protest began with the gathering of demonstrators in front of the village municipality, before walking in unison towards the Israeli military. They walked up a hill towards the main road separating the village from the illegal settlements and inevitably towards the Israeli military. It appeared that perhaps the occupation forces were caught off guard by the demonstrators, or at least by their courage, and were not immediately prepared to respond in their typically aggressive and sometimes fatal manner.

 The partial retreat of the Israeli occupation forces was short lived and was followed by an extended and intense period of tear gas, sound bombs and steel bullets coated in a thin layer of rubber. Even under such an assault the protesters remained steadfast, refusing to be intimidated even when it appeared there was a genuine threat to their lives.

The demonstration also caused some considerable disturbance to traffic travelling along the illegal road, and there are reports that live ammunition was fired by settlers from the main road. As is to be expected there was no evidence that any attempt was made by the Israeli military to intervene in any way. Instead the soldiers continued to fire directly at the protesters.

For the second consecutive week an ISM activist had a tear gas canister fired directly at them while they attempted to record the soldiers with a camera. It is clear the Israeli military is targeting media.

Eventually the demonstrators were forced to retreat. Gradually the group moved to another area of the village where they were again confronted by the Israeli military positioned on the illegal road. On this occasion the Israeli Occupation Forces were prepared and immediately began firing tear gas canisters and rubber coated steel bullets.

The young men of the village refused to be subdued or intimated by such intense aggression and continued to throw stones in a symbolic gesture of resistance. Eventually the older men of the village urged the young men to cease, and that the situation was becoming too dangerous.

The injuries sustained were relatively minor, mostly constituted by partial asphyxiation from tear gas. It seems inevitable that there will be a series of arrests targeting the young men of the village during the next week, yet it is reported that this will not deter the village from continuing their struggle for justice.

Jonathon is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).