1 January 2011 | Popular Struggle Coordination Committee
Doctors at the Ramallah hospital fought for Jawaher Abu Rahmah’s life all night at the Ramallah Hospital, but were unable to save her life. Abu Rahmah suffered from severe asphyxiation caused by tear-gas inhalation yesterday in Bil’in, and was evacuated to the Ramallah hospital unconscious. She was diagnosed as suffering from poisoning caused by the active ingredient in the tear-gas, and did not respond to treatment.
Over a thousand people heeded to the call issued by the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements today, and joined the weekly demonstration. Despite the siege laid on the village by the Israeli army, activists – Palestinians, Israelis and internationals – swarmed the hills and valleys surrounding Bil’in by the hundreds and managed to join those already in the village.
Jawaher Abu Rahmah was the sister of Bil’in activist, Bassem Abu Rahmah, who was shot dead with a high velocity tear-gas projectile during a demonstration in the village on April 17th, 2009. See below for a video of his shooting.
Mohammed Khatib, a member of the Bil’in Popular Committee said this morning: “We are shocked and furious for Israel’s brutality, which once again cost the life of a peaceful demonstrator. Israel’s lethal and inhumane response to our struggle will not pass. In the dawn of a new decade, it is time for the world to ask Israel for accountability and to bring about an end to the occupation.”
Adv. Michael Sfard, who represents the village in an appeal against the Wall added: “The son was killed by a directly aimed projectile, the daughter choked in gas. Two brave protestors against a regime that kills the innocent and doesn’t investigate its criminals. We will not quiet, we will not give up, we will not spare any effort until those responsible will be punished. And they will.”
The canisters, which are used to disperse demonstrations in the West Bank, have been responsible for serious injuries and at least one death
Israel Defense Forces soldiers recently resumed the use of prohibited tear gas canisters to disperse demonstrations in the West Bank.
These tear gas grenades, which are in effect 40 mm rounds with a range of 250 meters, were responsible for numerous serious injuries and at least one death. In March 2009, the U.S. peace activist Tristan Anderson was hit in the head by one of these canisters while demonstrating against the West Bank separation barrier in Na’alin. Anderson was critically injured and was hospitalized in a minimally responsive state for several months after the incident. He has recovered some physical and mental functions. In April 2009, Bassam Abu Rahma, of Bil’in, died immediately after being hit in the chest by a tear gas grenade. The incident is still under IDF investigation.
After several human rights organizations protested to the military advocate general, use of the extended-range tear gas canister was banned by the IDF and stocks were removed from weapons depots. Haaretz reported six months ago that in a training day on crowd dispersal held at the General Staff command several officers expressed objection to the ban. They said that that using the shorter-range canisters put soldiers in greater danger and put them in closer range of rocks thrown by demonstrators.
Last month, IDF forces resumed their use of the extended-range tear gas grenades, despite their prohibition. They were used to disperse the demonstrations held every Friday in the village of Nebi Salah, between Salafiya and Ramallah, which end with participants hurling rocks at the soldiers and at vehicles plying the road to the settlement of Neve Tzuf. Two weeks ago, one of these canisters smashed the leg of one of the demonstrators. A video from November 12 shows tear gas coming out of the canister as it lay on the ground.
On Thursday, soldiers from the Carmeli reserve brigade fired extended-range tear gas canisters at teens who threw rocks at them. Several shells bearing the words “extended range” were visible on the ground after the incident.
20 November 2010 | International Solidarity Movement
Palestinian demonstrators march in Nabi SalehYesterday, 19th November, the weekly demonstration in An Nabi Saleh was again met by violent opposition from the Israeli Army. One young villager is scheduled to undergo surgery to insert a platinum implant in his leg where the bone was crushed from the impact of a high-velocity tear gas projectile.
The demonstration was blocked in its effort to reach the village spring located near the illegal settlement Halamish by massive tear gas attacks. Throughout the day the Israeli army and border police shot tear gas and rubber bullets toward demonstrators, sometimes directly at people.
11 demonstrators were injured during the demonstration, mostly by rubber bullets and tear gas, and 4 of the injured required hospitalization. One villager was shot by a rubber-coated steel bullet in the leg. An international received a cut on his face from another bullet that bounced off a wall. Several people suffered from the effects of tear gas.
Active Stills: high velocity tear gas canister shot at demonstrationIllegal, high-velocity tear gas canisters were used. Unlike usual tear-gas canisters, they were made to be capable of breaking through walls, can fly long distances without a sound, do not emit a smoke tail, and have a propeller to accelerate the weapon mid-air. Thus they are very difficult to detect and substantially more dangerous than regular tear gas. In the past, demonstrators have been severely injured by high velocity tear gas canisters hitting them. In April 2009, Bassem Abu-Rahma, had been killed by a high velocity tear gas canister fired directly at him during the weekly demonstrations in the village of Bil’in. In March 2009, the American activist Tristan Anderson was shot in the head with a high-velocity tear gas canister, for which he suffered severe brain damage and disability.
Active Stills: A Palestinian man collects a sample of skunk waterIn the early afternoon, a military jeep entered the village and sprayed skunk water at houses and demonstrators. Skunk water is considered a cultural weapon and has thus been condemned by the international community. It is made up of several different, unidentified, bad-smelling chemicals that cast a wretched smell which lasts for weeks and is nearly impossible to remove.
Late in the day, a tear gas canister smashed the window of a house, filling it with gas. Beside it, a car was damaged by rubber bullets.
A Palestinian woman is seen after she was injured from tear gas shot directly into her house during the demonstrationAs in previous weeks, early in the day all roads leading in to the village were blocked in an attempt by the Israeli Army to prevent International and Israeli activists from participating in the protest. In solidarity, activists within the village waited to begin their demonstration while activists were forced to walk for an hour from a neighboring village.
The demonstration lasted until sunset, when the military finally retreated from the village.
14 November 2010 | International Solidarity Movement
Al Nabi Saleh demonstrators assaulted with high velocity tear gas canisters and rubber bullets
High-velocity tear gas canister used in an Nabi SalehThe weekly demonstration at Al Nabih Saleh took place again this Friday, one day after the six year anniversary of Yasser Arafat’s death.
One young boy was shot in the hand with a rubber bullet, and tear gas canisters were shot throughout the whole demonstration to prevent demonstrators from reaching the village spring near the illegal settlement Halamish. Some canisters were shot directly at demonstrators. High velocity tear gas canisters were used despite their illegality for the danger they pose: high velocity tear gas canisters have killed and seriously injured many demonstrators in the past.
The demonstration was supposed to be preceded by a large celebration commemorating the legacy of Yasser Arafat. However, the military closed off all entrances to the village two hours before the demonstration, making it very hard for outside guests to make it to the event. Some people, including ISM volunteers, had to take a 30 minute detour through the olive groves, around the soldiers in order to enter the village. Other visitors were tear gassed when they attempted to enter the village through this alternative route.
Even with all these complications the celebration had about 200 people in attendance, and it was attended by all including internationals and Israelis. Children also marched, and chanted pro-Arafat chants. Right after the celebration, the demonstration started, at around 1 pm and continued until after sundown.
Bil’in marks the 6th anniversary of Arafat’s death Photos by Hamde Abu Rahma
Bil'in on 6th anniversary of Arafat's deathToday’s demonstration in Bil’in was joined by a large number of Palestinians, Israelis and internationals. Members of the Fatah party were also present. The demonstration followed a week of constant night-raids by Israeli soldiers searching for the anti-wall village activist, Ashraf Khatib.
The protesters walked together towards the Apartheid Wall, carrying posters of Yasser Arafat, in commemoration of the Fatah leader who passed away six years ago. Speeches were held by members of the Fatah movement, while Israeli soldiers in the background prepared to attack the peaceful demonstrators.
The speakers were Sultan Abu Al Enanan from the Fatah movement, Kays Abu Leyla from the Executive Committee of PLO and the political office of the Democratic Front and Basel Monsur from the Popular Committee in Bil’in. They all promised to stay strong as Arafat would have wanted them to be, and to fight the occupation together.
Bil'in flooded with teargasEven before the majority of the protesters moved forward, soldiers began firing tear gas from their position on the road leading to the village. Immediately the area was covered with tear gas, with canisters flying into the crowd from different directions. In response a few youngsters threw stones to the Israeli soldiers, in symbolic resistance to their violence. The soldiers moved into the field and continued to fire rounds of gas, chasing people back into the village. At one point live ammunition was fired, causing fear and the retreat of any protesters remaining in the area.
Tear gas canisters set fires on the ground in several places, which were put out by some protesters before they spread. The demonstration lasted for about two hours.
The Popular Committee and the people of Bil’in thanks their international and Israeli supporters for standing side by side with them in their struggle against Israel’s occupation.
New anti-wall demonstration in Al Walaja
Demonstrators march to the wall in Al-WalajaFor Friday, 11 November 2010, the local committee in Al-Walaja (a little village half an hour from Bethlehem) organized a peaceful protest to draw attention to the illegal building of a new Israeli settlement. The village is surrounded by settlements, so the Israeli government has decided to build a wall around the village with only one entrance.
The villagers won´t accept this without resistance. Last week this issue was in the supreme court but nothing was decided. The government has continued to build, so on Friday the inhabitants of Al Wlaja held a demonstration.
Friday’s demonstration passed along the wall and the people demanded the freedom to live without the wall or occupation. On the place where the wall would stand in the future, a villager held a speech about the circumstances of living in Qualqilya. Soon the Israeli Army came with 4 jeeps and soldiers walked with the people but there were no clashes. The people only stood in front of the soldiers and shouted their contentions to them. The demonstration ended after one hour.
The new settlement affects Al-Walaja in several ways: Not only does it encroach directly on existing Palestinian homes, but it towers over the village, and when the wall is completed it will isolate the village from agricultural areas and other parts of the community. A final tragic outcome of the wall and the new settlement is that if they’re completed Al-Walaja will be reduced in size from the 20,000 durhams of 1967 to a mere 2,000 durhams. Developers building the new settlement have not obtained permission to build, whereas the Palestinians have been denied for more than a year permission to complete homes nearby.
29 October, 2010 | International Solidarity Movement
22 people injured, 5 still in hospital, at increasingly violent An Nabi Saleh Demonstration by Henni
Many shebab, two journalists and a girl were injured on Friday at the weekly demonstration in An Nabi Saleh. Villagers had employed a new strategy in response to the increasing violence of soldiers and border police.
Demonstrators shot with pepper spray at An Nabi Saleh
Demonstrators split up and approached the road from the two opposite hills divided by the valley. The side with most of the shebab was blocked with massive amounts of teargas and attacked by border police. From the other side, most of the internationals, women, and children entered the road and continued the demonstration.
Police shouted and attacked some Palestinians with pepper spray directly in their faces. Soldiers attempted to arrest an international, saying “we want to talk with you.” With the support of other internationals and Palestinians he was de-arrested.
Border police declared the road “a closed military zone” without showing any paper or map as proof. Demonstrators asked to look at the paper, but the commander “was not able to find it”. Soldiers gave people 10 minutes to leave, threatening that everyone would be arrested otherwise. The demonstrators remained and argued with the soldiers, but the only response was a round of sound bombs shot directly at them.
Border police isolated the internationals and most of the children and women of the village from the shebab, occupying three houses in the village center and clashing with the shebab for several hours.
They shot two Palestinian journalists, leaving one injured on the arm and the other on the leg. Border police and soldiers continued their attack on the shebab until after sunset, pushing the clash to the olive fields surrounding the village, using rubber bullets and tear gas.10-year-old girl hit with rubber bullet at an Nabi Saleh
At this same time, the internationals and women were attacked with heavy amounts of tear gas. About sunset, one 10-year-old girl was injured by a rubber bullet. In total, 22 people were injured, and 5 are still in the hospital.
These weekly demonstrations have been taking place since January, 2010. One man in the village said “We want to build a strategy for all Palestine to find a way to resist against the occupation.” The village has a strong story of resistance: During the first Intifada almost half of its inhabitants were in jail. Women always participate in the Demonstration and act independently.
Ni’lin demonstrators cut away part of electric fence by Stella
Climbing the wall to raise the Palestinian flag
Friday, demonstrators in Ni’lin succeed in cutting away part of the electric fence that annexes land onto the nearby illegal settlement Modi’in Ilit. Around one hundred Palestinian, Israeli and international activists gathered under the olive trees just outside the village and, after the noonday prayer, marched through the village’s land towards the Apartheid Wall.
In protest against the illegal settlements that have already stolen most of their land and that prevent them from farming what little is left, some youth from the village threw stones symbolically against the Apartheid Wall. A few minutes after the demonstration reached the wall, the army responded with tear gas. As the wind was often blowing toward the wall, the soldiers frequently got a taste of the tear gas themselves.
Some protesters then managed to cut a part of the electric fence. At that point, soldiers came out from the gate to check what was happening, and the protesters retreated. Quite surprisingly the soldiers didn’t follow the protesters as they usually do, but went back to hide behind the concrete slabs of the wall and continue to shoot tear gas.
The demonstration finished around 3 p.m. with no injures or arrests.
Soldiers hiding behind the concrete prove of the Apartheid
