Tag: Tear-Gas Canister - Page 57 - International Solidarity Movement

Spirit strong in weekend demonstrations

International Solidarity Movement

15 June 2010

Al Ma’asara

Around 30 Palestinians, Israelis and internationals gathered for the weekly demonstration in Al Ma’asara on Friday June 11th. The participators called for the Israeli government to stop construction of the illegal apartheid wall, which will claim a sizeable amount of the village’s farmland. Village resident Hassan was arrested during the peaceful demonstration.

The demonstration began with a march. Many organizations were represented, including the International Solidarity Movement, Anarchists Against the Wall, and Holy Land Trust.

The planned route of the illegal wall annexes much of the village’s farmland, with dramatic consequences. Protesters shouted slogans against the illegal wall, to end the occupation, and their hopes for peace.

The march was met by Israeli soldiers, who obstructed the junction as usual. Hassan was then arrested. The demonstrators remained protesting Hassan’s arrest and waiting for his release. During this time four military jeeps, one tank and one police car arrived. As demonstrators demanded Hassan’s release through a megaphone, the army responded with the promise that Hassan would be released if the group moved 15 meters back. However, after ten minutes soldiers left with Hassan.

Bil’in

Demonstrators in Bil’in today formed their own Palestine national football team, coinciding with the start of the World Cup, to highlight their right to be an independent nation. The players, together with dozens of other Palestinian, Israeli and international activists, marched to the annexation barrier at the edge of the village, where a goal was constructed and a game was begun. Israeli soldiers responded to this entirely non-violent activity by firing volleys of tear gas at the participants. They then came through the fence, and arrested 6 journalists, four of whom were soon released.

The tear gas canisters fired also caused large fires on the dry ground around the olive trees. Soldiers fired more canisters, aiming for the groups of villagers attempting to put out the flames.

Hebron

Many Palestinian, Israeli and international protestors gathered Saturday for the weekly demonstration organized by Youth Against Settlements. The demonstrations call for freedom of movement for Palestinians in Hebron, generally, and specifically for the opening of Shuhada St. The protest began at the Hebron municipality and marched to one end of the closed Shuhada St. At the barrier, participants chanted and held signs in solidarity with the Palestinians living in Hebron.

During the protest, settlers gathered to harass and provoke the demonstrators. One settler even approached the barrier to further provoke, warning that there would be another Baruch Goldstein. Baruch Goldstein was an American doctor from Brooklyn, who, in 1994, went into Ibrahimi Mosque during prayers, and massacred twenty-nine people inside the mosque, then went outside to continue the slaughter.
After the massacre inside the Ibrahimi Mosque, Shuhada St. was blocked off to Palestinians completely. In 2000, the street was closed for the “security of the settlers”, including around 500 shops in the middle of the city. After this, due to a lack of traffic, more than 1000 shops were closed. Since then, more than 100 checkpoints have been installed, while settlers not only enjoy the freedom of movement, but also have full protection of the Israeli Military. These settlers have completely changed the lives of some 200,000 Palestinians, reducing their lives to enough of a living hell for roughly 1000 families to abandon their homes.

The protest went from the Shuhada St. closure through the Old City, and met with soldiers, then continued back to the Shuhada St. closure where the protest ended. The spokesperson for Youth Against the Settlements called on the people of the Old City to join in the protest, and thanked all demonstrators for their show of support. As usual, participants were urged to continue the struggle against the divisions of Hebron, as well as the occupation of Palestine.

Dahamash

Sunday evening, two hundred Palestinian, international and Israeli activists demonstrated against the demolition order of 70 houses in the village of Dahamash. Demonstrators marched from the village to the main adjacent road where they concentrated and chanted, demanding the recognition of the village and a stop to the demolition orders.

Residents from Sheikh Jarrah and international and Israeli activists rallied for an hour in solidarity with the villagers of Dahamash. Speeches were given by Nasser Gawi of Sheikh Jarrah and leaders of Dahamash’s community, denouncing the Israel’s racist policy towards Palestinians and claiming their right to live on their lands. In a jovial atmosphere, the internationally-famous Palestinian hip hop group, DAM, gave a concert in which they showed their solidarity with the people of Dahamash, Sheikh Jarrah and all Palestinians.

Dahamash is a small unrecognized village between Lod and Ramlle that existed since before 1948 and was built on privately owned Palestinian land. The state of Israel refuses to recognize the village, claming the land is agricultural land, while in adjacent Jewish villages land is rezoned for building. Now that the Municipality of Ramlle is building a new Jewish neighborhood adjacent to the village, the mayor believes the new Jewish residents will prefer not to have Dahamash residents as neighbors and so has issued 70 demolition orders for houses in the village. If the demolitions proceed, 600 men, women and children will lose their homes.

US activist loses eye after being shot in face with tear gas canister

International Solidarity Movement

1 June 2010

US citizen Emily Henochowicz was shot directly in the face with a tear gas canister as she non-violently demonstrated against the Flotilla massacre

UPDATE 1 June, 8:30PM (GMT+2): Emily is recovering at Hadassah Hospital after two surgeries Monday night. She lost her left eye, three metal plates were inserted into her head/face, and her jaw is wired shut. The bone surrounding her eye socket, cheekbone and jawbone are all fractured. Emily was standing peacefully during a demonstration at Qalandiya checkpoint Monday when Border Police fired a large number of tear gas canisters directly at the heads of Emily and another ISM activist.

31 May 2010: An American solidarity activist was shot in the face with a tear gas canister during a demonstration in Qalandiya, today. Emily Henochowicz is currently in Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem undergoing surgery to remove her left eye, following the demonstration that was held in protest to Israel’s murder of at least 10 civilians aboard the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in international waters this morning.

21-year old Emily Henochowicz was hit in the face with a tear gas projectile fired directly at her by an Israeli soldier during the demonstration at Qalandiya checkpoint today. Israeli occupation forces fired volleys of tear gas at unarmed Palestinian and international protesters, causing mass panic amongst the demonstrators and those queuing at the largest checkpoint separating the West Bank and Israel.

“They clearly saw us,” said Sören Johanssen, a Swedish ISM volunteer standing with Henochowicz. “They clearly saw that we were internationals and it really looked as though they were trying to hit us. They fired many canisters at us in rapid succession. One landed on either side of Emily, then the third one hit her in the face.”

Henochowicz is an art student at the prestigious Cooper Union, located in East Village, Manhattan.

The demonstration was one of many that took place across the West Bank today in outrage over the Israeli military’s attack on the Gaza freedom flotilla and blatant violation of international law. Demonstrations also took place in inside Israel, Gaza and Jerusalem, with clashes occurring in East Jerusalem and Palestinian shopkeepers in the occupied Old City closing their businesses for the day in protest.

Henochowicz lost her left eye after being shot directly in the face with a tear gas canister

Tear gas canisters are commonly used against demonstrators in the occupied West Bank. In May 2009, the Israeli State Attorney’s Office ordered Israeli Police to review its guidelines for dispersing demonstrators, following the death of a demonstrator, Bassem Abu Rahmah from Bil’in village, caused by a high velocity tear-gas projectile. Tear-gas canisters are meant to be used as a means of crowd dispersal, to be shot indirectly at demonstrators and from a distance. However, Israeli forces frequently shoot canisters directly at protesters and are not bound by a particular distance from which they can shoot.

Israeli occupation forces boarded the Mavi Marmara, one of six ships on the Freedom Flotilla at 5 a.m. this morning, opening fire on the hundreds of unarmed civilians aboard. No-one aboard the ships were carrying weapons of any kind, including for defense against a feared Israeli attack in international waters. At least 9 aid workers aboard the ship have been confirmed dead, with dozens more injured. The assault took place 70 miles off the Gaza coast in international waters, after the flotilla was surrounded by three Israeli warships. The Freedom Flotilla, carrying 700 human rights activists from over 40 countries and 10,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid, was headed for the besieged and impoverished Gaza Strip. The Israeli blockade on Gaza, combined with the illegal buffer zone, has put a stranglehold on the territory. 42% of Gazans are unemployed, and food insecurity hovers around 60% according to figures from the Palestine Centre for Human Rights.

Al Walaja, Beit Jala protest illegal wall construction

International Solidarity Movement

25 May 2010

Al Walaja

Al Walaja village, close to Bethlehem, faces the threat of being totally isolated from the surrounding countryside by an apartheid wall which is currently under construction. When it is finished the only access villagers will have to the outside world is through a tunnel which can be opened or closed at the whim of the Israeli authorities. This nightmarish prospect is being protested each Sunday by the villagers, supported by Israeli and international sympathisers.

This Sunday, 23 May, approximately 70 protesters attempted to march from the village to the site of the wall’s construction. Before they could reach their objective they were met by a squad of a dozen border police who ordered them to disperse. They chose instead to sit in the roadway, where they were addressed in English and Arabic by a resistance leader, who emphasised the justness of their cause.

On this Sunday the Israeli troops did not resort to the use of tear gas or other violent methods of crowd control. Unfortunately for them, they were standing upwind of the demonstrators and ran the risk of gassing themselves rather than their prospective victims. One of them, “The big Russian with the red hair” – as he was described to me by a nearby Israeli journalist – appeared anxious to wreak some havoc. One of his companions, by contrast, seemed to indicate by his body language that he wished he could have been somewhere else.

Finally, the need to be somewhere else motivated the protesters to peacefully disperse. The only casualty of the day was the magnificent landscape as the bulldozers continued to rip apart the earth for Al Walaja’s unwanted and illegal prison wall.

Beit Jala

A small group of protestors was successful in interrupting construction of the illegal apartheid wall

Beit Jala’s weekly demonstration against the illegal apartheid wall also took place this Sunday. Despite having to clamber down a precipitous terraced hillside to reach the site, a group of committed activists managed to seat themselves in the path of the leading bulldozer. By clinging determinedly to one another they managed to resist being dragged away into detention for upwards of an hour. They hung on even when the operator of the bulldozer put their lives at risk when he resumed excavating within a metre of them.

The exasperation of the troops at failing to remove the demonstrators
found its expression in detonating percussion grenades and throwing tear gas canisters amongst the assembled journalists and photographers. Nevertheless, the most determined of them managed to hang in and record the event until the last demonstrator had been arrested, handcuffed and carried to the waiting police vehicle.

The six activists- all Israeli nationals- who were arrested were
released the same day. The final act of violence by the Israeli
military was to enter the village and tear gas a group of
Palestinian children who had taken no part in the demonstration. I
suppose it helped to relieve their frustrations.

Bushfires ravage Iraq Burin amidst weekly demonstration

International Solidarity Movement

23 May 2010

The northern West Bank village of Iraq Burin demonstrated against the Israeli annexation of their farmlands today, resulting in the injury of one local protester by a tear gas projectile. Tear gas canisters landing on dry grass sparked bushfires in the hot climate, causing further damage to the contested farmland that villagers struggle to reach.

Local and international activists marched through the valley to the mountain adjacent to Iraq Burin village where, facing a force of 20 Israeli soldiers they sung chants of protest in assertion of their right to access their land. Soldiers waited almost no time before firing tear gas at demonstrators, hitting 17-year old Fahed Qaddous in the arm and causing considerable loss of blood. Qaddous was helped back to the village by protesters, where he was transported to Rafidia Hospital in Nablus by ambulance.

Demonstrators stood their ground on the rocky terrain as soldiers continued to fire volleys of gas, the canisters’ heat setting the grass alight. As strong winds carried the fire across the field, activists were forced to halt the demonstration in order to prevent the blaze from spreading to the olive groves. Without access to water on the mountain, demonstrators’ only option was to tear thick branches from the very olive trees they sought to protect in order to beat the fires out.

Despite the damage caused to village lands by IOF aggression protesters returned to the village in high spirits, the weekly demonstration marking the all too rare occasion that villagers can maintain some contact with their land.

It was last year that the people of Iraq Burin began gathering to defend their village each Saturday due to the violent attacks instigated by settlers of Bracha each week, during the Jewish holiday of Shabbat. Now, with the village’s pro-active – and non-violent – resistance to the aggression, no settlers have been sighted on the land of Iraq Burin for over five Saturdays now. The result is clear evidence of popular resistance in action, and what successes it can achieve in Palestinian communities living under occupation.

Unprovoked violence in Al Ma’asara

International Solidarity Movement

22 May 2010

Demonstrators were met with a large number of Israeli military

On Friday 21st May, the village of Al Ma’asara, south of Bethlehem, held its weekly demonstration against the theft of village lands by the nearby Israeli colony/settlement of Efrat. Chanting “We want to go to our lands” in Arabic and English and bearing a banner proclaiming “Boycott Settlement Products” the villagers, numbering in excess of 200, marched towards the nearby access road. They were accompanied by a sizeable contingent of Israeli and international supporters, including a party of French visitors from Grenoble, who maintain an aid program to villagers in the Bethlehem region.

Upon reaching the road junction, the protest march was met by a heavily armed contingent of Israeli soldiers and border police who immediately, and for no apparent reason, arrested two 16 year-old youths from the village. A day later they remain in detention. The marchers were then urged by the organisers to sit down in the road and maintain a non-violent and peaceful protest.

The commander of the Israeli troops then produced an order declaring the area a closed military zone. Almost immediately, and without warning, troops commenced to throw sound grenades amongst the assembled people, followed by successive volleys of tear gas canisters which blanketed the area with dense clouds of choking, painful fumes. Two people were injured when hit by the canisters. The most serious injury was sustained by Hassan Birjiyeh, a march organiser and member of the Al Ma’asara National Committee. He was taken to a hospital in Bethlehem with head and shoulder injuries which were later diagnosed as not life threatening.

Participants in the march were shocked by the level of violence and unprovoked aggression employed by the Israeli military. The French contingent (comprised mostly of middle-aged and elderly men and women) were particularly distressed to see and to experience such a disproportionate use of force. Even seasoned observers were surprised that tear gas had been used at Al Ma’asara, where protests are always peaceful and non-violent. They wonder whether this presages an increased level of repression by Israeli forces.