Abu Michel cleans the front of his Beit Jala home after bulldozers destroyed his family's patio and playground. Anne Paq/Activestills.orgOver 150 people participated in the weekly anti-Wall demonstration organized by the local Popular Committee in Beit Jala on Sunday. The protest march, which set out towards the Wall’s construction site, was attacked with tear-gas and concussion grenades as soon as it reached a razor-wire barricade erected by soldiers on the road leading to village’s lands.
As demonstrators were forced to retreat, soldiers continued to shoot tear-gas projectiles directly towards them. Local youth responded to the attack by throwing stones and clashes ensued. Two protesters were hit by rubber-coated bullets and Muammar Awad, an freelance cameraman, was hit in the head by an aluminum tear-gas projectile shot directly at him. According to eye witnesses, Awad was evacuated unconscious to the Sheari Tzedek hospital in Jerusalem, with blood gushing out of the back of his head.
Beit Jala is a predominantly Christian town located 10 km south of Jerusalem, on the western side of the Hebron road, opposite Bethlehem. Once completed, he Wall will Isolate 3,200 Dunams of the town’s lands, including almost 3,000 Dunams of olive groves and the only recreational forest in the area, the Cremisan monastery and the Cremisan Cellars winery.
According to a military confiscation order handed to the villagers, the path of the Wall will stretch over 4890 meters between Beit Jala and alWallaja, affecting 35 families, whose homes may be slated for demolition.
1 May 2010Violent arrest in An Nabi Saleh. Keren Manor/Activestills.org
Israeli military violence on Palestinian land continued Friday in the village of An Nabi Saleh, where more than 100 non-violent demonstrators gathered to protest land confiscation and the ongoing apartheid. Shooting through windows, firing low-flying tear gas at protesters and arresting five, the military’s use of extreme violence has not subsided.
After gathering for speeches by local residents, Palestinian, Israeli and International demonstrators marched through the village and towards land recently confiscated by the illegal Hallamish settlement. After the initial peaceful march was dispersed by tear gas, military jeeps invaded the village. Soldiers threw percussion grenades and fired tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets at villagers, some of whom were merely watching the demonstration from their homes. One canister, fired directly at the head of an Israeli demonstrator from a distance of 20 meters, could have proved lethal had it not narrowly missed striking him. Such tactics were responsible for fracturing the skull of Emad Rezqa last Friday in Bil’in.
The violence continued throughout the day. Four Palestinians and one Israeli were violently arrested while resting behind a house. Multiple demonstrators left the village in ambulances, including one Palestinian who received a broken hand from being struck by a tear gas canister. Village residents have also been routinely arrested in night raids. Despite such extreme measures taken by the Israeli military, the village continues to host spirited and lengthy demonstrations each Friday.
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. The demonstrations protest the illegal seizure of valuable agricultural land and the uprooting in January 2010 of hundreds of the village residents’ olive trees by the illegal Hallamish (Neve Zuf) settlement located opposite An Nabi Saleh. Conflict between the settlement and villagers reawakened in the past month 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 the 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 it’s establishment in 1977.
Palestinian men, women and children, along with international activists met with severe military repression on Saturday, April 24 as the village of Iraq Burin staged another successful demonstration against the Israeli occupation of their lands.
Local and international activists gathered under the heat of another beaming midday sun at the southern outskirts of the village, warming up for what has become weekly tradition. Some 80 demonstrators, lead by a shabb (youth) on a magnificent steed, began the march along the steep path to the summit of Iraq Burin’s southern peak toward the fence demarcating the edge of Iraq Burin’s contested farmland, adjacent to the illegal settlement of Bracha.
A force of two dozen Israeli soldiers, having occupied the hill’s summit, blocked the demonstrators’ progress. With flags, raised fists & megaphones as their weapons, protesters established their ground 50 metres from armed Israeli occupation forces, defiantly – yet peacefully – asserting their right to access their land. Lyrical chants rung out from those assembled, of Iraq Burin’s two martyrs Mohammad and Ussayed Qaddous (killed on March 20 by soldiers firing live ammunition during the weekly demonstration) and Palestine’s capital of Al-Quds, 75 km from Iraq Burin, but largely unvisited by 1000 green ID-holding residents of the village. Activists felt a further surge of pride as women from the village appeared within their midst, chanting alongside Iraq Burin’s men and flashing the peace sign at soldiers.
A Palestinian flag billows in the winds in Iraq Burin's demonstration
It didn’t take long for Israeli occupation forces, spread out across the hill’s summit, to open fire on the crowd. As the first volleys of sound bombs and tear gas were let loose on the peaceful demonstration chaos broke loose, gas canisters landing left, right and centre as protesters attempted to escape the fumes whilst holding their ground against advancing Israeli occupation forces. Soldiers became increasingly aggressive, firing gas directly at activists, which came pounding through the air and clearing heads by mere centimeters.
Despite the military’s use of brute force, the village displayed bravery and resilience in the face of violence, continuing to chant rhymes of protest and hold Palestinian flags aloft, resplendent in black, green, red and white through the plumes of smoke. After approximately one hour the village called an end to the demonstration, declaring it another success, with no injuries, no arrests and a clear message sent to the occupation forces – “this is our land, and we will return here each week to remind you of it.”
A mother is lead away by her son after she is engulfed in gas
The village of Iraq Burin began non-violently protesting the expansion of Israeli settlement Bracha in August 2009, in response to a sharp increase in provocative, and often violent attacks initiated by residents of the settlement. These attacks are frequently aided and abetted by the Israeli military, who in turn invade the village, firing rounds of tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and live ammunition upon Palestinian civilians
Emad Rezqa after being shot with aluminum tear gas canister
An Israeli protester suffered a broken skull after soldiers shot him directly with a tear gas projectile that hit his forehead. Five demonstrators were arrested. Another protester was hit in the head with a tear gas projectile in Nabi Saleh.
Emad Rezqa was hit in the forehead by an aluminum tear gas projectile shot directly at him by Israeli soldiers during the weekly anti-Wall demonstration in Bil’in earlier today. He suffered a fractured skull and brain hemorrhage. Rezqa is currently hospitalized at the Hadassa Ein Karem hospital in Jerusalem.
The demonstration Rezqa was injured in concluded the three-day International Bil’in Conference on Popular Struggle, and was attended by hundreds of people. Five demonstrators were arrested during the protest.
The march, which commenced at the village’s mosque after the midday prayer, was attacked with tear gas some 30 seconds after reaching the gate in the Wall, despite the fact that it was entirely peaceful. The gas forced most of the participants to retreat back towards the village, but a smaller group managed to stay by the gate, chanting and shouting slogans.
A few minutes after, a group of soldiers began firing a second round of tear gas projectiles, this time directly at the demonstrators from a distance of about 30 meters. Rezqa was hit and quickly evacuated to the Ramallah hospital with blood gushing from his forehead. He was transferred to the Hadassa Ein Karem hospital after being x-rayed and diagnosed as suffering a broken skull.
Following Rezqa’s injury, soldiers invaded Bil’in through the gate in the Wall and arrested four protesters who were staging a sit-in some hundred meters away from the Wall, as well as a journalist who was next to them.
Another demonstrator was similarly injured today during a demonstration in the village of Nabi Saleh. The protester was hit in the head with a tear gas projectile shot directly at him after the Army invaded the village even before the demonstration began.
In Ni’ilin, roughly 300 people demonstrated in solidarity with the villages political prisoners. The demonstration was attended by two PLC members from the Change and Reform party – Mahmoud Ramahi and Fadhel Saleh, who joined the protest today following Ramahi’s statement in support of the popular struggle last Wednesday during the Bil’in conference.
Ramahi and Slaeh’s participation is yet another sign of the recent expansion of the popular struggle and the momentum the movement is gaining in the Palestinian street.
Local demonstrators discuss the finer points of protest.
Local and international activists broadcast a message of protest against settler and military violence in Iraq Burin last Saturday 17 April, marching to the threatened farmlands that lie between the village and the illegal settlement of Bracha. The demonstration showcased the village’s spirit of resistance, refusing to waver in the face of severe military repression.
Iraq Burin, touted by proud locals as the most beautiful village in Palestine (and agreed upon by international solidarity activists present) is situated just south of Nablus city, in the northern region of the West Bank. Local protesters, joined by ISM activists, assembled under a beaming midday sun at the southern edge of the village, facing the contested farmlands that lie between the village and the illegal Israeli settlement of Bracha. It was to these lands that demonstrators would march, and stake their rightful claim to.
Demonstrators face off with Israeli occupation forces
At 1pm the march commenced, forging a new route towards the southern peak of the mountain constituting the foundations of Iraq Burin, weaving its way through still-young olive trees, planted by local and international activists in a tree-planting action six months prior. The route was a strategic choice over the path usually taken down the steep valley opposite the village to meet with Israeli forces on the opposite hill, that gives severe disadvantage to those participating in the demonstration and tempting only diehard protesters to forge ahead. A buoyant atmosphere accompanied the lyrical and defiant chants that rung out from the crowd, featuring emotional commemorations of the village’s shahadeen (two martyrs), Ussayed and Mohammad Qaddous, who were shot dead by live ammunition from the Israeli occupation forces one month ago.
The march was obstructed by five Israeli soldiers positioned some 50 meters from the hill’s summit, flanked by two jeeps. As the march drew to a halt, and stretched out across the field to face the soldiers a further three jeeps and 20 soldiers arrived on the scene while protesters continued to chant, raising fists and flags in the air in the face of the Israeli occupation forces. After 30 minutes, the first volleys of tear gas were fired, arching high across a blue sky towards Iraq Burin village. As the village elders and children moved to the rear, and young men rushed forward to defend their lands, soldiers fired off a barrage of tear gas directly at protesters.
Israeli soldiers blocking the path of the demonstration
The demonstration ended soon after, both the military and village elders appearing cautious after the violent deaths of Mohammad and Ussayed Qaddous. Demonstrators returned to the village in high spirits however, singing, discussing ideas for next week’s round of direct action, and gulping in breaths of fresh air as the remnants of tear gas were swept off towards on the settlement on a strong southerly breeze.
The village of Iraq Burin began non-violently protesting the expansion of Israeli settlement Bracha in August 2009, in response to a sharp increase in provocative, and often violent attacks initiated by residents of the settlement. These attacks are frequently aided and abetted by the Israeli military, who in turn invade the village, firing rounds of tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and live ammunition upon Palestinian civilians.
