Tag: Tear-Gas Canister

Military teargases Kufr Qaddoum following nightly raids and arrests

by Alistair George

9 December 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

The Israeli military fired tear gas canisters directly at demonstrators in Kufr Qaddoum today in an aggressive response to the weekly protest against the closure of the main road linking the village with Nablus.  Many people suffered from severe gas inhalation.

 After midday prayers, over 200 people marched to the edge of Kufr Qaddoum where several people made speeches calling for the road to be re-opened to the village, including officials from the Palestinian Authority and the Chief of the Palestinian District Coordinators Office.  The route to the road was blocked by around 10 Israeli soldiers, supported by armoured vehicles and soldiers on the hill overlooking the village.

Teargassing Kufr Qaddoum – Click here for more images.

Many people returned to Kufr Qaddoum after the speeches, however some Palestinian youths threw stones at the Israeli military, who responded by mounting an aggressive incursion inside the village, firing tear gas canisters directly at protesters and into houses and gardens lining the village’s main street.

Although it is permissible to fire tear gas canisters in an arc to disperse demonstrations, it is forbidden to use them as weapons by firing them directly at protesters. Firing tear gas canisters directly at protesters and at close range turns the canisters into a missile that can maim and endanger life.  According to B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization, “Firing of this kind has already resulted in injuries, some grave, to dozens of Palestinians and Israeli and foreign citizens”.  A Palestinian man was seriously injured at the weekly demonstration in Nabi Saleh today, after reportedly being hit in the face by a tear gas canister fired by Israeli military forces at close range.

The main road linking Kufr Qaddoum to Nablus passes by Qadumim, an illegal Israeli settlement, and was closed to the village by the Israeli military in 2003.  The closure of the road has doubled the length of time that it takes villagers to travel to Nablus.  A report published in September by the Palestinian Ministry of National Economy estimated that restrictions on movement imposed by Israeli forces costs the Palestinian economy $184m a year.

After their appeal to re-open the road failed in the Israeli courts, the village began weekly protests on 1 July 2011.  Since then the response from the Israeli military has grown increasingly violent, mounting incursions deep into the village.  Abu Musub, President of Kufr Qaddoum’s community centre, said that “Every week they fire more gas – they want to stop the demonstrations but we will continue until the open the road.”

 According to Abu Musub, the Israeli military enters Kufr Qaddoum every night, often detonating loud sound bombs in the village’s streets.  They have also arrested many of the village’s men in connection with the protests.  Four men were arrested by the Israeli military on 29 November 2011 – Osama Bram, 22, Abdallah Jumu, 23, Refit Bram, 21, and Abdel Juma, 23.  The arrests were probably made in connection with the demonstrations, however they have been denied contact with their families or a lawyer so no information is available at present.  Abu Musub claims that the Israeli military caused severe damage to the Abdel Juma’s house during his arrest; damaging carpets, smashing furniture and ripping open bags containing food.

 Abu Musub claimed that there are 20-21 people from the village in Israeli custody – eight of whom have been arrested in connection with the weekly protest.

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

Dozens teargased in the village of Bil’in west of Ramallah

by Sameer Bornat

9 December 2011 | Friends of Freedom and Justice-Bilin

Dozens were wounded by poison gas suffocation in the weekly march organized by the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Bil’in, with the participation of a delegation from Belgium, dozens of Palestinians, and international and Israeli peace activists.

Israeli Occupation Forces gas Bil'in - Click here for more images

The march began after Friday prayers from the center of the village heading to the land which was liberated five months ago from Israeli occupiers. Participants raised Palestinian flags and banners painted with the image of the imprisoned leader Marwan Barghouti. They chanted national slogans calling for the departure of the occupation and the demolition of the apartheid wall, and also they called on Palestinians to remain faithful and call for freedom for all Palestinian prisoners.

Upon their arrival to the Abu Lemon area, activists removed some of the barbed wire that cuts through the land. Then Israeli soldiers who were situated behind the concrete wall shot rubber coated steel bullets, stun grenades, tear gas canisters, and sprayed skunk water towards the participants, which caused the injury of dozens from severe asphyxia. Ambulance crews treated the wounded in the field, during while some of the participants threw stones at the soldiers.

Palestinian protester severely injured in Nabi Saleh

by Jonathan Pollack

9 December 2011 | Popular Struggle Coordination Committee

Mustafa Tamimi, a 28 year old resident of Nabi Saleh, was shot in the face today, during the weekly protest in the village of Nabi Saleh. He sustained a severe injury to his head, under his right eye, and was evacuated to the Belinson hospital in Petah Tikwa. He is currently anesthetized, breathing through tubes, and his condition is described as serious. Tamimi is undergoing treatment in the trauma ward of the hospital, and is expected to undergo surgery later tonight.

A photo of the incident shows Tamimi at a distance of less than 10 meters behind the semi-open door of an army jeep with the gun aimed directly at him. Clearly visible in the photo is also the tear-gas projectile flying in his direction.

Mustafa Tamimi (left) a moment before his injury. Circled in red are the barrel of the gun and the projectile that hit him. Picture credit: Haim Scwarczenberg

The incident took place in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh today, when dozens gathered for the weekly demonstration in the village, protesting the theft of village lands by the adjacent Jewish-only settlement of Nabi Saleh. After the army dispersed the peaceful march, minor clashes erupted followed by a severe response by Israeli forces. Several people were hit with rubber-coated bullets and directly shot tear gas projectiles. Three were evacuated to the Ramallah hospital for further treatment. One protester was arrested.

The demonstrations, which have been held regularly for the past two years have seen hundreds of injuries to protesters by Israeli forces as well as dozens of arrests carried out with the aim of suppressing dissent.

Background

Late in 2009, settlers began gradually taking over Ein al-Qaws (the Bow Spring), which personally belongs to Bashir Tamimi, the head of the Nabi Saleh village council. The settlers, abetted by the army, erected a shed over the spring, renamed it Maayan Meir, after a late settler, and began driving away Palestinians who came to use the spring by force – at times throwing stones or even pointing guns at them, threatening to shoot.

While residents of Nabi Saleh have already endured decades of continuous land grab and expulsion to allow for the ever continuing expansion of the Halamish settlement, the takeover of the spring served as the last straw that lead to the beginning of the village’s grassroots protest campaign of weekly demonstrations in demand for the return of their lands.

While the model of regularly held protests around the construction of Israel’s Separation Barrier became a common one in recent years, the protests in Nabi Saleh mark a significant break from that tradition, in that protest there is entirely unrelated to the Barrier. This expansion of the popular resistance model symbolizes the growing support the model enjoys among Palestinians, and the growing positive discourse around it across the Palestinian political spectrum.

Protest in the tiny village enjoys the regular support of International and Israeli activists, as well as that of Palestinians from the surrounding areas. Demonstrations in Nabi Saleh are also unique in the level of women participation in them, and the role they hold in all their aspects, including organizing. Such participation, which often also includes the participation of children mirrors the village’s commitment to a truly popular grassroots mobilization, encompassing all segments of the community.

The Israeli military’s response to the protests has been especially brutal and includes regularly laying complete siege on village every Friday, accompanied by the declaration of the entire village, including the built up area, as a closed military zone. Prior and during the demonstrations themselves, the army often completely occupies the village, in effect enforcing an undeclared curfew of sort. Military nighttime raids and arrest operations are also a common tactic in the army’s strategy of intimidation, often targeting minors.

In order to prevent the villagers and their supporters from exercising their fundamental right to demonstrate and march to their lands, soldiers regularly use disproportional force against the unarmed protesters. The means utilized by the army to hinder demonstrations include, but are not limited to, the use of tear-gas projectiles, banned high-velocity tear-gas projectiles, rubber-coated bullets and, at times, even live ammunition.

The use of such practices have already caused countless injuries, several of them serious, including those of children – the most serious of which is that of 14 year-old Ehab Barghouthi, who was shot in the head with a rubber-coated bullet from short range on March 5th, 2010 and laid comatose in the hospital for three weeks.

In complete disregard to the army’s own open fire regulations, soldiers often shoot tear-gas projectiles directly at groups of protesters or individuals and rubber bullets are indiscriminately shot at protesters from short distances. The army has also resumed using high velocity tear-gas projectiles in Nabi Saleh, despite the fact that they have declared banned for use after causing the death of Bassem Abu Rahmah in Bil’in in April 2009, and the critical injury of American protester Tristan Anderson in Ni’ilin in March of the same year.

Tear-gas, as well as a foul liquid called “The Skunk”, which is shot from a water cannon, is often used inside the built up area of the village, or even directly pointed into houses, in a way that allows no refuge for the un-involved residents of the village, including children and the elderly. The interior of at least one house caught fire and was severely damaged after soldiers shot a tear-gas projectile through its windows.

Since December 2009, when protest in the village was sparked, hundreds of demonstration-related injuries caused by disproportionate military violence have been recorded in Nabi Saleh.

Between January 2010 and June 2011, the Israeli Army has carried 76 arrests of people detained for 24 hours or more on suspicions related to protest in the village of Nabi Saleh, including those of women and of children as young as 11 years old. Of the 76, 18 were minors. Dozens more were detained for shorter periods.

Israeli forces enter Ni’lin with tear gas and ammunition

by  Jenna Bereld

3 December 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

After Friday’s peaceful demonstration in Ni’lin on 2 December, the Israeli military occupation forces entered the village and started following some of the demonstrators. When they caught up, they started to fire rubber coated steel bullets and live ammunition.

It’s nothing unusual that they fire live ammunition here, a witness says. But this is the first time they shoot after the demonstration has finished.

Ni’lin has most of its land in area C and the separation wall is built through the actual village, though the village is situated more than 3 km away from the Green Line. Today 39.8% of the village’s total land area is confiscated. The wall also annexes land for  five Israeli settlements established on Ni’lin village’s land.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWfYh3fKmPQ

As usual, Friday’s peaceful demonstration against the wall was met with tear gas. Once the air was thick of tear gas, the demonstrators decided to finish the demonstration.

 Later the occupation forces entered the village and shot rubber bullets and live ammunition among peaceful villagers that were caught up. One man was hit by a rubber bullet and live ammunition was fired in the air and against a stone.

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

Beit Hannina: House demolitions without warning

25 November 2011  | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

At 11 AM this Thursday the 24 of November, Mohammed Ka’abne and his family of Beit Hannina, were shocked by the arrival at their doorstep of an Israeli military unit accompanied by several police officers and two bulldozers.

Without issuing any kind of eviction order, or notification to the family, they proceeded to demolish the two houses of Mohammed’s sons and their families, and the tent where Mohammed himself has lived for five years.

Demolitions in Beit Hannina
Demolitions in Beit Hannina - Click for more images

When the the bulldozers arrived at the scene at 11 AM, the accompanying military assisted by shooting several teargas canisters throughout the small area. In addition to this they forced the men and women to step aside from the houses.

According to Mohammed they also arrested his grandchildren and beat them, while the bulldozers tore down their houses.

Since the military did not issue any kind of warning in advance, all of the family’s furniture and other belongings were still in the houses when they were torn down.

When the two houses and the tent, including their water tanks, had been destroyed, the military left the family who, with the help of friends and neighbours, started to collect the few belongings which might be saved.

A short while afterwards international observers and activists came to the location to record what had happened. Around 3 PM personnel from the Red Cross also arrived with tents for the family to stay in.

The Bedouin family of Mohammed Ka’abne, 67 years, includes his three sons and their respective wives and six small children.

Mohammed grew up in the South Hebron Hills from where he was forced in 1948, when he moved to Jericho, and some years later came to Beit Hannina.

According to Mohammed he had to spend several thousand shekels to buy a piece of land of 1500 m2, including money for a lawyer to get a building permit and money for the military to let him stay there. Muhammed also says that after having bought the land, he waited for five years for a building permit. He then realized that he couldn’t wait any longer and decided to build the two houses for the families of his sons and put up his tent, although he didn’t have the legal permit to do so.

Five years later the family ais now being forced to live in tents from the Red Cross.

Talking about the brutal way that the demolition was carried out Mohammed said, “If they would have told us to destroy the houses with our own hands we would have done it. But not like this.”

Beit Hannina is a Palestinian neighbourhood in East Jerusalem which has suffered from the establishment of Israeli settlements since 1970. In addition the area also took a heavy blow when the Israeli government started to build the illegal Segregation Wall straight through Beit Hannina in 2004.

The Segregation Wall now effectively cuts off the older part of the neighbourhood – Beit Hannina al-Balad – which is located in the West Bank, from the newer part – Beit Hannina al-Jadida – which is located on the other side of the wall.

A walk between neighbours before the construction of the Segregation Wall might take a few minutes has now been replaced by a bus or taxi ride around the wall and through the Qalandia checkpoint, which takes about 45 minutes, and which of course is not possible for Palestinians without Israeli citizenship.

The family of Mohammed Ka’abne live in Beit Hannina al-Balad, which is supposedly under the control of the Palestinian Authority, yet still the Israeli government decides who they allow to live here and for how long.