The beginning of An Nabi Saleh's weekly marchThe West Bank village of An Nabi Saleh held their weekly demonstration on Friday, attempting to reach the village land that has been annexed by the illegal settlement of Halamish. Demonstrators marched down from the village mosque till they were blocked by a line of Israeli soldiers and jeeps. Participants chanted, danced and sang for approximately half an hour before the military decided to violently disperse the group by throwing tear gas and sound grenades directly at the participants.
Soldiers continued to fire gas and rubber-coated steel bullets at the villagers for several hours, injuring several people, including a local teenage boy who was hit directly in the face by a canister. It opened up a hole in his face and shattered his cheek bone. As the ambulance tried to drive him away to hospital, soldiers fired volleys of tear gas at it, forcing it to turn around and take a much longer route round.
Military inside the villageTowards the end of the demonstration, two internationals were arrested.The two, Swedish and Canadian citizens, were not taken to military base, but were held for four hours in a small shack. They were blindfolded and had their hands tied behind their backs for the whole four hours, before being released without charge. A similar ordeal was endured by three Israeli activists arrested earlier in the day in Bili’in.
The hilltop village of An Nabi Saleh has a population of approximately 500 residents and is located 30 kilometers northeast of Ramallah along highway 465. Today and every Friday since January 2010, around 100 un-armed demonstrators leave the village center in an attempt to reach a spring which borders land confiscated by Israeli settlers. The District Coordination Office has confirmed the spring is on Palestinian land, but nearly a kilometer before reaching the spring, the demonstration is routinely met with dozens of soldiers armed with M16 assault rifles, tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and percussion grenades.
The demonstrations protest Israel’s apartheid, which has manifested itself in An Nabi Saleh through land confiscation. The illegal Halamish (Neve Zuf) settlement, located opposite An Nabi Saleh, has illegally seized nearly of half of the village’s valuable agricultural land. In January 2010, hundreds of the village residents’ olive trees were uprooted by settlers. Conflict between the settlement and villagers reawakened due to the settlers’ attempt to re-annex An Nabi Saleh land despite an Israeli court decision in December 2009 that awarded the property rights of the land to An Nabi Saleh residents. The confiscated land of An Nabi Saleh is located on the Hallamish side of Highway 465 and is just one of many expansions of the illegal settlement since its establishment in 1977.
Demonstrators begin marching in An Nabi SalehThis past Friday, May 14, the town of An Nabi Saleh held its weekly demonstration. Overly aggressive Israeli military tactics started a colossal brushfire, which reaped viable farmland. The weekly demonstration confronts the illegal expansion of Halamish settlement onto village land. Great local support brought out over 100 Palestinians, Israelis and Internationals.
The overwhelming drive and enthusiasm for justice rang through megaphones as chants and arms raised in pride as the demonstration moved down the valley. Israeli soldiers began to move forward from highway 465, and the peaceful demonstration soon got pushed back into the village as the Israeli military surrounded it on three sides. The use of excessive amounts of tear gas, percussion grenades, and rubber-coated steel bullets pushed villagers into a dangerously blind situation. Tear gas fired illegally from An Nabi Saleh’s hilltop ridge downhill was aimed directly at village demonstrators. Small brush fires started by tear gas canisters were fanned by the wind and engulfed the land in a massive brushfire.
As villagers retreated, soldiers chased demonstrators with tied attack dogs. Nobody was caught or injured from this unusually violent tactic. Tear gas rained down into the narrow streets of An Nabi Saleh, smoking out residents, causing great amounts of gas inhalation and setting fire to the private plots of local land owners. After many hours of holding back the Israeli military from invading the village, burnt fields smoldered and soldiers retreated while villagers dispersed with heads held high.
Tear gas canisters caused extensive brushfires in An Nabi SalehTwo Israeli activists were detained during the demonstration, one of whom was dragged down the road and then beaten in the police car while in custody.
The hilltop village of An Nabi Saleh has a population of approximately 500 residents and is located 30 kilometers northeast of Ramallah along highway 465. Today and every Friday since January 2010, around 100 un-armed demonstrators leave the village center in an attempt to reach a spring which borders land confiscated by Israeli settlers. The District Coordination Office has confirmed the spring is on Palestinian land, but nearly a kilometer before reaching the spring, the demonstration is routinely met with dozens of soldiers armed with M16 assault rifles, tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and percussion grenades.
The demonstrations protest Israel’s apartheid, which has manifested itself in An Nabi Saleh through land confiscation. The illegal Halamish (Neve Zuf) settlement, located opposite An Nabi Saleh, has illegally seized nearly of half of the village’s valuable agricultural land. In January 2010, hundreds of the village residents’ olive trees were uprooted by settlers. Conflict between the settlement and villagers reawakened due to the settlers’ attempt to re-annex An Nabi Saleh land despite an Israeli court decision in December 2009 that awarded the property rights of the land to An Nabi Saleh residents. The confiscated land of An Nabi Saleh is located on the Hallamish side of Highway 465 and is just one of many expansions of the illegal settlement since its establishment in 1977.
Today fifty demonstrators from Iraq Burin, together with international activists, marched in commemoration of the Nakba’s 62nd anniversary, and to protest to the illegal Israeli occupation of the village’s lands. Israeli occupation forces enacted their policy of violent “crowd dispersal” techniques in an effort to thwart the protest, proving no match for the village’s spirit of resistance.
The demonstration commenced at Iraq Burin’s southern tip, the assembled Palestinian and international protesters holding 62 black balloons to the sky in memory of the 62 years of Israeli occupation that has passed since al-Nakba (“the catastrophe”) that saw the ethnic cleansing of over 500 Palestinian villages and the founding of the Israeli state in 1948. Facing the illegal Israeli settlement of Bracha, whose residents have executed countless attacks on the residents of Iraq Burin, the demonstration set off.
Weaving a haphazard route through the valley that carves a line between Iraq Burin village and her farmland, the demonstration began its ascent of the mountain deemed off-limits by the Israeli military. For local protesters, reaching these lands represented far more than the sum of its parts – the assertion of the right to exist on their land, and the right to defend those same lands from the usurping forces of a foreign state. Further up the mountain the demonstrators forged, at each moment expecting to be met with the dull thud of sound grenades and the smoke of gas canisters propelled from the end of a soldier’s M-16 – yet pushing ahead nonetheless.
The victory of reaching the mountain’s summit – a first for the demonstration, and many of its individuals – was significant. The crowd drew to a halt 20 meters from where some 15 Israeli occupation forces were waiting and, continuing to chant and wave flags, protesters stood their ground on the soil that is rightfully theirs, but has become all but impossible to access. The first rounds of tear gas were soon fired by soldiers, causing the demonstration to spread out across the mountain. Residents observing from their vantage points in the village served as the protesters’ eyes and ears amidst the confusion, calling across the valley to alert demonstrators to the soldiers’ movements.
An additional force of soldiers soon descended to the valley, aiming to encircle and isolate the protesters on the slopes of the mountain. Most protesters managed to reach the other side of the valley before the occupation forces began firing off rounds of gas in to the village. As the young men of Iraq Burin rushed forward once again to defend their lands, the soldiers were driven back, to the calls of victory of the protesters that echoed out through the hills.
Locals cheering on the exit of Israeli soldiers from 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 four Saturdays now. The result is clear evidence of popular resistance in action, and what successes it can achieve in Palestinian communities living under occupation.
Demonstration in Bilin symbolizing the Nakba and Palestinian refugees inability to bury loved ones on native soil.
Bil’in
Today’s demonstrators, Palestinians, Israelis, and internationals, marched from the Bil’in mosque towards the illegal apartheid wall. Halfway along the route, the procession picked up several men dressed entirely in black, carrying a coffin with a man inside. The grim scene symbolized the Palestinians’ loss of land during the Nakba and their inability to return to these lands. Most importantly, the coffin symbolized the fact that Palestinian refugees are not allowed to bury their deceased loved ones on their native soil.
The Israeli army fired tear gas and many aluminum canisters into the crowd not long after they gathered at the wall. The army aggressively entered through the wall’s gate and chased protestors up the route, as other soldiers fired tear gas canisters into the retreating crowd. Several were grabbed and arrested: Haitham al-Khatib, cameraman from Bil’in; Stormy, an American activist; Ashraf Abu Rahme from Bil’in; Abdul Fattah Burnat from Bil’in; and two Israeli demonstrators. One Palestinian man was injured with a gas canister to his chest, and dozens suffered from tear gas inhalation. The procession finally retreated after these arrests and after being forced back up the hill into the village.
An Nabi Saleh
Fifty Palestinian, Israeli and international activists demonstrated Friday against land confiscation in An Nabi Saleh . The demonstration started at 1:30 pm in the center of the village and lasted roughly 400 meters, where demonstrators were met by the Israeli military which immediately shot tear gas at the crowd. After being dispersed, demonstrators hid among the houses of the village. The Israeli military continued throwing sound bombs and firing tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets for three hours. When the military retreated, demonstrators again tried to reach the lands which have been stolen by settlers but soldiers started again to launch tear gas and live ammunition (three warning rounds).
Near the end of the demonstration, plainclothes police officers who had infiltrated the demonstration grabbed eleven year-old boy, and two Israel activists who attempted to prevent his arrest. A 19-year-old demonstrator was arrested and beaten by plainclothes police officers. Four Israelis and one international were stopped and detained while driving on a road towards An Nabi Saleh. All were later released. The demo finished at 7pm.
Ni’lin
Approximately 50 Palestinian, Israeli and international demonstrators gathered outside of the town of Ni’lin Friday, attending midday prayers in a quiet olive grove before marching towards the illegal apartheid wall. Chanting and waving flags, the demonstrators fanned out upon reaching the wall, where they were met with volleys of tear gas. Protestors marched east along the wall before returning to the village. Several cases of tear gas inhalation were reported.
Al Ma’asara
The demonstrators of Al Ma’asara achieved a rare victory this week, reaching the farmland which falls on the illegal wall’s route. In more than two years, this is the first time demonstrators have reached the land, though this is the objective each week. Approximately 35 demonstrators, Palestinian, Israeli and international, were surprised when, upon reaching soldiers and razor wire blocking the road, their request to continue the march was considered and then granted. Demonstrators sang and listened to speeches upon reaching the land, and then returned peacefully to the village.
Soldiers watch protest near Shuhada Street
Hebron
Twenty-five Palestinians, Israelis and Internationals attended this newly-begun demonstration, gathering at an entrance to Shuhada Street, the main street in Hebron, now closed to Palestinians. After lively chants which lasted nearly an hour, the protest filed through the narrow streets of Hebron’s old city. Settlers poured water on demonstrators from the occupied second story of market buildings. Demonstrators returned to the Shuhada street gate without incident.
Beit Jala
Marching from the central square towards construction of the illegal wall, 50 Palestinian, Israeli and international demonstrators were met with Israeli military, who had blocked the road with razor wire. A demonstration was staged at the barbed wire and numerous speeches were delivered, before protestors turned back. The illegal wall cuts through a family’s front yard in Beit Jala, coming within meters of their home. Numerous ancient olive trees have been uprooted in the construction, which veers wildly off a linear path in order to snake around Route 60.
Non-violent demonstrations against the apartheid are growing
Between Friday and Sunday, more than 600 demonstrators protested the apartheid, land confiscation and the illegal wall in eight West Bank locations. These weekly demonstrations reflect the growing momentum of popular non-violent resistance, despite violent responses by the Israeli military.
Bil’in
Four were detained in Bil’in, including two Al-Jazeera reporters, as demonstrators gathered for the popular weekly protest against the Israeli apartheid and illegal wall. After speeches given in honor of International Workers’ Day, demonstrators marched towards the wall, where they were met with tear gas fired by Israeli soldiers. Soldiers entered the village several times in attempts to make arrests. Two were injured by flying tear gas canisters, just a week after Emad Rezqa suffered a fractured skull in Bil’in from a gas canister fired directly at his head. The demonstration was one of many global actions this week calling for the Irish multinational firm CRH to divest from its links to Nesher Cement. Nesher is the only Israeli cement company, meaning that it supplies cement for construction of the wall, settlements and other infrastructures of apartheid, all illegal under international law.
Ni’lin
Approximately 50 demonstrators gathered for midday prayers before walking to the Western end of the illegal wall which bounds the town of Ni’lin on two sides. After facing Israeli military jeeps on the opposite side of the wall, the demonstration returned to the village in response to the invasion of a military jeep. The jeep retreated, at which point demonstrators returned to the wall and were met with a barrage of tear gas. Since May 2008, five demonstrators have been killed in Ni’lin, and American ISM activist Tristan Anderson was critically injured 13 months ago.
Qarrawat Bani Hassan
Nearly surrounded by settlements and facing continual land confiscation, villagers from Qarrawat Bani Hassan gathered with visiting Palestinians and internationals for a weekly work party. Springs near the village, dating to Roman times, have repeatedly been vandalized by Israelis from the nearby illegal settlements, most recently on March 8th, 2010. Although it is believed that the most recent destruction of the springs was in retaliation for the weekly gatherings, villagers have not been deterred and continue in their work to build a park near the springs.
This Friday, workers planted trees and built a trail. A past mayor of Al Bireh attended and spoke to volunteers about the role of community work in building cohesive resistance to the occupation, based on his experiences in the late 1960’s.
Al Ma’asara
A group of about 25 demonstrated in the agrarian village of Al Ma’asara, near Bethlehem, after midday prayers on Friday. Speeches were delivered in Arabic, Hebrew and English to the crowd of Palestinians, Israelis and Internationals. Soldiers obstructed the road with razor wire during the demonstration, preventing cars from passing. This included an ill woman traveling to a nearby clinic.
Al Walaja
Protesting the illegal wall which will completely surround Al Walaja and confiscate nearly all of the village’s land, approximately 60 Palestinian, Israeli and International demonstrators gathered Friday. Speeches were delivered by local and regional residents after the demonstrators marched across the bulldozered swath of land. Bulldozing recently began for the wall, which will claim nearly 5000 dunums of farmland and separate the village from nearby Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
