Tag: Video

Two injured and dozens suffered teargas inhalation during the weekly protest in Bil’in

Bil’in Popular Committee

11 September 2009

Two injured and dozens were suffocated in Bil’in due to tear gas which was thrown at them by the Israeli soldiers, during their participation in the weekly demonstration against the construction of the wall and settlements. The two: Ashraf Abu Rahmah and Khamees Abu Rahmah. As Bil’in citizens participated in a demonstration after Friday prayers, with a group of international peace activists and Israeli peace movements members, the demonstrators raised up the Palestinian flags and banners calling for an end the incursions, night raids and arrests, and calling for the release of all detainees, and to stop building settlement and the confiscations of Palestinian lands.

The demonstrators walked in the village streets’, chanting national slogans condemning the occupation polices, and when the demonstrators approached the gate of the wall which they tried to open, the Israeli soldiers sprayed them with gas and sound bombs, causing tow injured and dozens of suffocation cases.

On the other hand, a delegation from the German and Swedish diplomats visited the village yesterday as they have listened to an explanation from the Popular Committee in Bil’in on the experience of their resistance to the wall. Subsequently they have toured to the wall thus they saw the negative effects caused by the wall on the villagers. Although they have seen the yards around the wall full of empty sound and gas bombs, which were used to suppress the demonstrators.

At another level, the Popular Committee condemned the Israeli government decisions relating to increasing housing units in settlements and land confiscation. As the popular committee called the International organizations to move quickly to stop such schemes, and called for boycotting punishment procedures against Israel. Although at the official level the committee has asked the PA for an Arabic and International action, in order to stop such occupation schemes. While at the popular level, the committee has invited the citizens to get out into the streets in popular protest marches and demonstrations with participation of international and Israeli peace movements to defend their land.

Israeli forces raid Bil’in

8 September 2009

Shortly after 2:30am, the Israeli occupation forces invaded the village of Bil’in again with five Jeeps and a military truck. They came to arrest Hamaza Burnat (age 16) but he was not at home at the time. This was the second time this week that the Israeli Army raided his house.

Bil’in is a small village of 1,700 inhabitants near Ramallah in the West Bank. For nearly three months now, the Israeli occupation forces have been conducting night raids several times a week in this village arresting more than 20 people, mainly teenagers.

On behalf of Iyad Burnat, the Head of the Popular Committee, we call on all the supporters to help us in our struggle by organizing demonstrations and sending messages to the Israeli Embassies demanding to stop these night raids in Bil’in. Our children cannot sleep at night because of sound bombs and tear gas being fired by the invading forces. This village is under curfew, we need all your help to be able to lead a normal life again.

Palestinians protest land seizure

Al Jazeera

Hundreds of Palestinian villagers have made a short but symbolic march to the separation wall that Israel has built on their land, a non-violent protests that they regularly undertake.

Equally, the protesters, marching from the village of Bilin, are regularly met with a violent response from the Israeli army.

“The village of Bilin is literally on the frontline of Israel’s confiscation of Palestinian land and the construction of its separation barrier,” Jacky Rowland, Al Jazeera’s correspondent reporting from the village, said.

“Later today the villagers of Bilin will protest the fact that not only they, but also five neighbouring villages, have lost their land which has been seized to build an Israeli settlement.

“This huge settlement will result in 40,000 Jewish settlers living on occupied land here in the West Bank and as Prime Minister [Binyamin] Netanyahu is planning to give the go ahead for even more of these settlement homes to be built,” she said.

Netanyahu is set to approve plans to build hundreds of new homes on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank, before considering US demands for a construction freeze.

Israeli forces incinerate Gazan fishing boat

ISM Gaza

3 September 2009

In November 2008 Abu Adham’s fishing boat was seized by the Israeli Navy and all the fishermen were abducted and transferred to Israel. The fishermen and boat were subsequently released without charge.

In June 2009 the Israeli Navy attacked the boat, riddling it with machine gun fire, causing extensive damage, and nearly killing the crew. The boat was then seized and the fishermen were abducted and transferred to Israel. On route to the port of Ashdod, Adham the captain of the fishing boat was beaten up by the Israeli sailors. The fishermen and the boat were subsequently released without charge.

On 31st August 2009 the Israeli Navy attacked several fishing boats as they were at work in Palestinian territorial waters. Abu Adham’s boat was riddled with bullets, and bombarded with shells. Flames engulfed the boat. Despite managing to tow it back to the port in Gaza City as it was burning, the fishermen were unable to prevent the boat’s destruction.

Two days before this attack, the Israeli Navy killed a Palestinian fishermen in the same area. It’s reported that he was but four metres from shore when an Israeli gun boat fired a shell at him. He was decapitated.

Two injured and dozens suffered teargas inhalation during the Bil’in weekly protest

Bil’in Popular Committee

4 September 2009

Despite the hot summer and the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan, a protest joined by internationals and Israeli peace activists marched from Bili’n after the Friday prayer. The protesters chanted and called for the end of the occupation, settlement building and the release of Palestinian detainees.

Today is the second anniversary of the decision from the so-called “Israeli Supreme Court of Justice” to move the path of the wall in Bili’n. On the 4th of Sept 2007, the Israeli court ruled that the wall in Bilin should be moved back to a distance of 500 meters from the Israeli settlement, which is built on Bili’n’s land. This decision returns about 1000 dunums of land to the farmers and stops future settlement building. The Bili’n Committee Against the Wall announced that the village will continue their non-violent resistance until the wall is removed and the court decision is implemented.

The protesters chanted slogans and called for national unity among the Palestinians until they reached the wall where they army had set up a razor wire to block the protest. When the protesters tried to go behind it, the army fired tear gas and sound grenades. Two injured: Ahmad Abu Rahmah (16), and Rani Burnat (29), and dozens suffered from inhalation of tear gas.

The Popular Committee against the wall in Bil’in wants to thank the Norwegian Govt., in their decision to refuse further investments in Israeli companies that support illegal settlements and the wall in the Palestinian territories, included the village of Bil’in.