Tag: Tear-Gas Canister - Page 64 - International Solidarity Movement

Bil’in weekly demonstration reenacts the Avatar film

12 February 2010

Demonstrator in Bilin dresses as the Navi from the film Avatar

The village of Bil’in reenacted James Cameron’s new film Avatar during today’s weekly demonstration. Five Palestinian, Israeli and international activists were painted blue, with pointy ears and tales, resembling the Avatar characters. Like Palestinians, the Avatars fight imperialism, although the colonizers have different origins. The Avatars’ presence in Bil’in today symbolizes the united resistance to imperialism of all kinds.

Today’s non-violent demonstration was again met with excessive violence by the Israeli army. Sound bombs and tear gas were used, leaving four people directly injured by the canisters. The canisters were shot directly at the protesters, which is in violation with the IOF’s firing regulations. Many other activists suffered from tear gas inhalation.

Before coming to Bil’in, Israeli activists reported that police were present at their carpool meeting point. Their ID’s were checked and some cars reported they were followed by the police. At the Rantis checkpoint, they were delayed once more and activists were obliged to continue their journey by taxi.

Bil’in has reason to celebrate this week. Yesterday, preparations for the construction of the new Wall began, which returns 30 per cent of Bil’in’s land to the village. Iyad Burnat, Head of the Bil’in Popular Committee speaks of a victory: “We feel relieved and feel the non-violent resistance is successful in its aim. Nevertheless, we will continue our struggle against the occupation as Bil’in still has another 30 per cent of land that is confiscated by Israel.”

Next week Bil’in will have a special demonstration, celebrating five years of non-violent resistance and expects a large number of demonstrators. Bil’in calls for all its supporters to invite people to join in next week’s demonstration.

Several injured by tear gas grenades in Bil’in weekly demonstration

Friends of Freedom and Justice

29 January 2010

During today’s weekly demonstration, Iyad Burnat, the head of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, was directly hit in his hand by a tear-gas canister, which caused major burns. Palestine TV correspondent, Haroon Amayreh, as well as a member of the Central Committee of Fatah, Sultan Aboul-Enein, and dozens of Palestinian, Israeli, and international peace activists, who had joined the demonstration in solidarity, suffered from tear-gas inhalation including fainting as the Israeli occupying forces violently suppressed today’s protest against the apartheid wall and settlements in the village of Bil’in.

The peaceful demonstration was organized by the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, and started at the center of the village of Bil’in after midday prayers. A member of the Central Committee of Fatah, Sultan Aboul-Enein and Fatah official in Lebanon, Fatah spokesman, Ahmad Alsaf, as well as Israeli and international peace activists participated in today’s protest in solidarity with a large group of people from the village of Bil’in as well as from neighboring villages.

As the protesters marched towards the western gate of the wall, built on the land of Bil’in, raising Palestinian flags and chanting slogans that called for national unity and for support of the popular resistance against the wall and settlements, they were met with ferocious attacks by the Israeli army. The occupying forces fired volleys of tear-gas canisters and rubber-coated steel bullets at the demonstrators before chasing them all the way inside the limits of the village of Bil’in.

The Israeli army recently started to use special forces and border police during these weekly demonstrations. They ambushed the village, and tried to encircle the protesters from behind in an attempt to arrest them. As they stormed into the village and chased after the young demonstrators, violent confrontations between the two sides erupted whereby the Israeli army shot live ammunition in the air to disperse the youths within the village. Furthermore, special forces pursued journalists and peace activists.

Background:

The West Bank village of Bil’in is located 12 kilometers west of Ramallah and 4 km east of the Green Line. It is an agricultural village, around 4,000 dunams (988 acres) in size, and populated by approximately 1,800 residents.

Starting in the early 1980’s, and more significantly in 1991, approximately 56% of Bil’in’s agricultural land was declared ‘State Land’ for the construction of the settlement bloc, Modi’in Illit. Modi’in Illit holds the largest settler population of any settlement bloc, with over 42,000 residents and plans to achieve a population of 150,000 by 2020 (http://www.btselem.org/Download/200512_Under_the_Guise_of_Security_eng.pdf).

In 2004, the International Court of Justice ruled that the Wall in its entirety is illegal under international law, particularly under International Humanitarian Law. The Court went on to rule that Israel’s settlements are illegal under the same laws, noting that the Wall’s route is intimately connected to the settlements adjacent to the Green Line, further annexing 16% of the West Bank to Israel.

· Despite the advisory opinion, early in 2005, Israel began constructing the separation Wall on Bil’in’s land, cutting the village in half in order to place Modi’in Illit and its future growth on the “Israeli side” of the Wall.

· In March 2005, Bil’in residents began to organize almost daily direct actions and demonstrations against the theft of their lands. Gaining the attention of the international community with their creativity and perseverance, Bil’in has become a symbol for popular resistance. Almost five years later, Bil’in continues to have weekly Friday protests.

· Bil’in has held annual conferences on popular resistance since 2006, providing a forum for activists, intellectuals, and leaders to discuss strategies for the non-violent struggle against the Occupation (http://www.bilin-village.org/english/conferences/).

· Israeli forces have used sound and shock grenades, water cannons, rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas grenades, tear gas canisters and 0.22 caliber live ammunition against protesters.

· On 17 April 2009, Bassem Abu Rahma was shot with a high-velocity tear gas projectile in the chest by Israeli forces and subsequently died from his wounds at a Ramallah hospital.

· Out of the 75 residents who have been arrested in connection to demonstrations against the Wall, 27 were arrested since the beginning of a night raid campaign on 23 June 2009. Israeli armed forces have been regularly invading homes and forcefully searching for demonstration participants, targeting the leaders of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, as well as teenage boys accused of throwing stones at the Wall. Seventeen currently remain in detention, 10 of which are minors.

· To date, 75 residents have been arrested in connection with demonstrations against the Wall.

· In addition to its grassroots movement, Bil’in turned to the courts in the fall of 2005. In September 2007, 2 years after they initiated legal proceedings, the Israeli High Court of Justice ruled that due to illegal construction in part of Modi’in Illit, unfinished housing could not be completed and that the route of the Wall be moved several hundred meters west, returning 25% of Bil’in’s lands to the village. To date, the high court ruling has not been implemented and settlement construction continues.

· In July 2008, Bil’in commenced legal proceedings before the Superior Court of Quebec against Green Park International Inc and Green Mount International Inc for their involvement in constructing, marketing and selling residential units in the Mattityahu East section of Modi’in Illit.

An Nabi Salih: Village children gassed while taking refuge from military

International Solidarity Movement

29 January 2010

Over 20 village residents – including 14 children – were targeted by Israeli soldiers in a volley of tear gas and rubber coated bullets as they took refuge in the Tamimi family house in An Nabi Salih. The residents were not part of the weekly demonstration and children from surrounding houses had gathered there for safety. One boy was hit in the stomach with a gas canister. Five people, children and elderly women, were taken away in ambulances and treated for injuries including tear gas asphyxiation.

Earlier, near 12:30PM, Israeli soldiers blocked the non-violent demonstration as they attempted to reach a spring recently taken by settlers from the near-by Jewish-only Hallamish settlement. Demonstrators slowly advanced a few meters and sat down. Israeli and international activists joined in solidarity. This tactic was repeated many times until soldiers began firing tear gas canisters directly at the demonstrators. As soldiers surrounded the village, shooting tear gas from three sides, a water cannon shooting foul smelling waste-water was deployed.

Just after the water cannon emptied its tanks, the Tamimi house was fired on.

As tear gas canisters and rubber-coated bullets flew through windows of the house, Red Crescent and activist volunteers responded to the attack, helping women and children outside to safety. In all, nine women, one man and 14 children were caught inside during the attack.

Water cannon shoots waste-water at demonstrators

The same house was targeted one week ago when tear gas and sound grenades broke through the windows. Seven people were gassed but no injuries were serious. As the women and children exited the house, soldiers told them to go back in. They refused due to large amounts of tear gas lingering inside and the soldiers hit them. One woman was arrested.

This brutal repression of a non-violent demonstration and targeting innocent bystanders comes as the Israeli government attempts to squash the popular resistance through illegitimate arrests and disproportionate force.

According to one An Nabi Salih resident, the demonstration’s goal was to reach a spring taken by Israeli settlers, but the over all motivation for ongoing demonstrations is to stop the constant advance of the Hallamish settlement onto Palestinian land. Residents say that since 1977 the settlement has taken half of the village’s farm-land, burning or cutting down trees tended by the village for generations.

Approximately six weeks ago, a group of Halamish settlers took over the spring located in privately owned Palestinian land in between the village and the settlement. Since then, and despite the fact that ownership of the land undisputed, the army began preventing Palestinians from accessing the area.

CPT: Israeli settlers invade At-Tuwani village

Christian Peacemaker Team
26 January 2010

Israeli soldiers enter Palestinian homes, attacks Palestinian, and throw tear gas.

For more information, contact:
Christian Peacemaker Teams 054 253 1323

AT-TUWANI – On Tuesday, 26 January 2010 approximately fifteen Israeli settlers from the Israeli settlement of Ma’on and the Israeli outpost of Havat Ma’on attacked Palestinians in the village of At-Tuwani. The settlers were accompanied by Israeli soldiers in three army jeeps and the settlement security agent of Ma’on. Villagers from At-Tuwani arrived, protesting the settlers coming into their village. An Israeli soldier punched a Palestinian villager, who was hospitalized for his injuries. Immediately thereafter, Israeli settlers began throwing stones at the Palestinian villagers while soldiers fired three canisters of tear gas at Palestinians.

Afterwards, the settlers drove to the entrance of At-Tuwani, and began throwing stones at passers-by on the road.

The day’s incident began at 9:20 am when three army jeeps and a pickup truck with an Israeli settler from Havat Ma’on and the settlement security guard from Ma’on drove into At-Tuwani. The settler walked throughout the village, entering Palestinian homes, accompanied by the soldiers and settlement security guard, and then remained in the village and made phone calls until other settlers arrived.

Israeli forces fire on Iraq Burin villagers

International Solidarity Movement

24 January 2010

Israeli forces opened fire on Iraq Burin villagers Saturday, following a settler attack that has become almost a weekly routine in the Palestinian village near Nablus. One villager was injured and treated at the hospital after being struck in the thigh by a tear gas canister.

An expectant atmosphere hangs over the village each Saturday now. The peaceful silence, punctuated only by donkey brays or the sound of children playing, offers a strange prelude to what each resident knows is coming. ISM activists have been maintaining a presence in Iraq Burin over the Saturday period – the Jewish religious holiday of Shabbat – but better known in the Occupied Territories for the territorial violence waged on this day by Israeli settlers on the rural Palestinian population.

Israeli military were sighted positioning themselves on the hill to the south from approximately 12pm, drawing onlookers from the village. A group of 15 settlers appeared on the hillside, where a long stand off took place between the village’s youth and the settlers from across the valley.

The settlers made frequent and provocative incursions half-way down the hill, returning to top only to coordinate with the Israeli soldiers. The soldiers fired one tear gas canister at two men sitting at the bottom of the hill and then seemed to retreat.

After an hour-long lull, the settlers appeared about one kilometer to east at the crest of the hill. This time they were brandishing slings and began to launch their projectiles at some shabab holding their ground 50 meters down the hill. The Israeli soldiers seemed to enjoy this spectacle, as they loafed 200 meters directly to the east, watching the scene for nearly half an hour. The soldiers then began to launch tear gas into the group of Palestinians on the hill who were already being bombarded with rocks slung by the handful of settlers up hill.

The soldiers shot two canisters of tear gas across the small valley and into the crowd of spectators which was comprised of young children, old men and internationals. There was a lull in the violence as the Israeli soldiers escorted the settlers up the hill and back to their settlements. The sharp twang of ammunition bouncing off the tin walls of the barn behind the villagers initiated a hasty retreat of all those present on or near that hillside.

The reason for such urgency in flight is lost to an outsider, but for the locals it is familiar dance. Three Humvees quickly barreled through the entire village and rapid successions of tear gas, sound grenades and rubber-coated steel bullets could be heard rocketing towards the hillside everyone had just vacated.

Once the soldiers realized that everyone had left the hillside, they began to spread terror throughout the village upon their exodus. Volley after volley of tear gas grenades flew into the village, bouncing off homes and threatening to spray families seeking shelter with broken glass. These volleys were punctuated with two to three sound grenades exploding in rapid succession and the firing of rubber-coated steel. Their retreat was made difficult by the lines of boulders that happened to find themselves in the middle of the road every 50 meters.

As they left the village, the soldiers shot tear gas blindly through the black, billowing smoke of a flaming tire. Jubilant shouts arose as they disappeared over the hillside, the villagers’ eyes still streaming from the tear gas.