Tag: US embassy

Call to action: Save Wadi Tiran, Occupied West Bank.

13 November, 2023, Wadi Tiran in the occupied West Bank, Palestine

The village of Wadi Tiran was given a 24 hour warning, “leave or we kill everyone”. 

Residents, along with a handful of international and Israeli human rights defenders, are gathered in a large tent awaiting their fate. The Israeli police were called but they refused to attend.   

The village of Wadi Tiran is a small herding community located next to what was the larger village of Zanuta, whose 150 residents were forced to leave their homes on 31 October under similar, persistent and violent Israeli settler attacks.  

Seven colonial settlers from the Havat Yehuda illegal outpost that lies above the village arrived in Wadi Tiran two nights ago: “You have 24 hours to leave or we will kill everyone”. This threat has become the standard threat issued to herding communities across the Occupied West Bank. Fifteen of these communities have already been wiped off the map. After 24 hours passed, settlers entered the community and destroyed cars, a solar panel, a tractor, and anything they could get their hands on. 

Now that night has fallen, the entire village has gathered in one tent waiting for the settlers to complete their threats. 


We ask people around the world to pressure their governments to take immediate action to stop the displacement of Wadi Tiran.

 

If you are a US citizen, please contact your local representatives and embassies:

 

Embassy in Jerusalem:

Ambassador: Thomas R Nides

Phone: (02) 630 400

Email: Americancenterjerusalem@state.gov

Website: https://il.USEmbassy.gov

 

Tel Aviv Branch Office:

Phone: (03) 519 7575

 

US Palestinian Affairs in Jerusalem:

Phone: (02) 6227230

Email: USPalestinianAffairs@state.gov

Script for communication to Embassies and Representatives:

I am writing to demand rapid action be taken by this body to defend human rights in the West Bank. As violations of International Humanitarian Law continue to be committed against occupied Palestinians, world leaders who do not take every action to defend human life and dignity are complicit in the denial of them.

Daily incidents of violence committed by Israeli settlers against isolated and vulnerable Palestinian families in the South Hebron Hills are being documented and transmitted to the world. Daily transgressions of the rights of Palestinians to live their lives without being harassed, searched, arbitrarily arrested and held without charge, raided, shot at and humiliated by the army and settlers -who are being emboldened by the silence of the international community. These violations are being reported by human rights organizations across the globe.  With the whole world watching, what side of history will you be on?

 

Resources: 

  1. https://www.crisisgroup.org/middle-east-north-africa/east-mediterranean-mena/israelpalestine/settler-violence-rises-west-bank-gaza-war
  2. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/31/west-bank-palestinian-villages-israeli-army-settlers
  3. https://www.ochaopt.org/content/other-mass-displacement-while-eyes-are-gaza-settlers-advance-west-bank-herders
  4. https://www.unocha.org/publications/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/fact-sheet-displacement-palestinian-herders-amid-increasing-settler-violence-september-2023

Bethlehem protests the US embassy relocation

On the 14th May 2017, the day the new US embassy to Israel was due to open in Jerusalem, protests were held across Palestine.

Protesters set up a barricade to protect themselves from the violence of the border police

In Bethlehem, hundreds of children, women and men marched from Nisan Square to the gate in the apartheid wall separating them from Jerusalem. This unarmed protest was immediately met by brutal force. Border police fired at protesters with a vehicle mounted tear-gas cannon. People ran into alleyways suffering from the effects of the gas.

Protesters soon regrouped, setting up a burning barricade to protect themselves from Israeli forces. Border police shot into the crowd with tear gas and foam baton ammunition. Both these types of ammunition are potentially lethal.

Vehicle mounted tear gas launcher used to fire at crowd
The launcher is of the type manufactured by US company Combined Systems

All of this deadly crowd control equipment is of the type supplied to Israeli forces by US company Combined Systems. The company have been the target of solidarity protests in the US.

Israeli forces occupy a balcony to shoot at protesters.

International Solidarity Movement volunteers were present, and saw several people being treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation.

Women were at the forefront of the demonstration, with affinity groups of women strengthening the barricade and protesting in the street. Some activists brought a large wooden door to protect themselves from tear gas and baton rounds.

Demonstrators use a wooden barricade to shelter from the baton rounds

East Jerusalem was illegally occupied by Israeli forces in 1967. Since then, the Israeli state and Zionist settler movements have claimed all of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and have embarked on campaigns and policies to marginalize and uproot Palestinian communities. Palestinian neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem, such as Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah, are currently resisting evictions, settler harassment and racism. Donald Trump’s relocation of the US embassy to Jerusalem supports these apartheid policies. The protest in Bethlehem was just one of many protests by Palestinian communites across the West Bank, Gaza, and the territories occupied by Israel in 1948, intended to show Palestinian opposition to the embassy relocation.