Following a relatively calm demonstration last week, and the unprovoked murder of Aqel Sror on 5 June, demonstrators marched towards the Apartheid fence with apprehension, unsure of what force would meet them. It was eerily quiet as demonstrators managed to reach the wall without the whistle of tear gas flying through the air.
The youths, well organized and prepared, were able to cut several sections of the razor wire fence that makes up this section of the ilegal Apartheid Wall. Contrary to the reaction of the Israeli army in all previous demonstrations which is generally disproportionate and excessive, these actions received no immediate reaction from the Israeli army, which permitted the youths to remove approximately 50 meters of the razor wire and damage several metal posts in the fence.
After perhaps an hour however, four jeeps began to drive back and forth below the area the youth were, provoking them to throw rocks in a symbolic gesture of refusing to be intimated.
After two and a half hours, the Popular Committe declared the end of the action, and all went home.
Ahmed Abu Hashish, a Bedouin teenager of 18 years from a rural community in the northern Gaza Strip had been missing for 54 days.
A shepherd then noticed a murder of crows on a patch of land from which there was also a foul stench emanating, but he could not approach close enough to investigate. This patch of land is in what Israel calls the “buffer zone”. A strip of land within “The Strip” which abuts the border with Israel, and in which the Israeli military enforce a no-go decree by shooting, from positions on their side of the border, at anyone who breaks it. It feels like a no-mans land, typically empty of people – or at least the living.
Of course most Gazans now choose not to go there. Others go out of necessity, desperation, or a resolve not to be forced off their land. Usually they survive. The soldiers don’t always shoot with the firm intent to kill. Often the shooting‘s just very, very close – enough to terrify. Enough to make one believe that the intention of the shots are to kill, and that the next one might. And the fact is that the next one might.
Ahmed’s father, Abu Ayesh, knew that this patch of land was most likely where his son now lay, slowly decomposing in the hot summer heat. No “official” organisations could or would help him search for his son’s body in this area – even the International Committee of the Red Cross who might normally coordinate with the Israeli Military in matters such as this had refused. He then requested assistance from the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative, and from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM).
On Sunday 14th June, members of Ahmed’s family including his father, and volunteers from the Beit Hanoun Local Initiative and the ISM ventured “out” into the “buffer zone“. As we arranged ourselves into a line to sweep along, and scour the land for a corpse, we could see Israeli jeeps and hummers congregating just across the border fence next to us. N from the ISM communicated with the soldiers over a megaphone, informing them of our purpose, and of our status as civilians. Many of our number were high visibility vests, drawing attention to the fact that we were a group of civilians.
Within minutes of starting our search however, the first shots rang out.
This land over which we were treading was rough, and speckled with thorn bushes. Maintaining our line, and ensuring that we didn’t pass some spot of ground unnoticed proved to be very challenging in these conditions – navigating our way through the the scrub, scanning the ground around us for a corpse, and instinctively attempting to avoid the bullets that split the air with an audible hiss.
We pressed on, and the gunfire waxed and waned – sometimes from assault rifles, sometimes from a machine gun, and punctuated with the odd explosion. Soldiers were visible on top of their jeeps, and on foot right up against the fence. N continued to communicate with them, requesting that they stop shooting at us.
Suddenly we spotted Ahmed’s body. As two of the Bedouins approached and began crouching down to examine it, more shots suddenly rang out which were obviously directed at them. They dived for cover away from the body. More of our group converged on the spot where the body was. We began wrapping it in a sheet, to carry it off the field. The stench of decay was nauseating, and a quick glance at the state of the corpse after lying there open to the elements for 54 days, was enough to induce an urge to retch.
As we rushed to take Ahmed’s body away, the shooting only intensified. We were all heading away from the fence. We’d told the soldiers over the megaphone, that we’d found the body and that we were going. Ahmed’s father hurriedly and in anguish attempted to catch up with the bearers of his son’s corpse, wailing and lamenting his loss as he did so. Still the bullets whistled past our heads, or into the ground behind us.
It struck me, when we finally got out of range of the soldiers’ guns, that our presence in that area that day must not have come as any surprise to them. It was most likely them who had shot Ahmed in cold blood some 54 days previously. They would have known where his body lay. The Israeli military never informed anyone of this. They did not pass on news of Ahmed’s murder to his family. Instead, they waited for almost two months, knowing that at some point and despite the danger, a search party might come looking for the corpse.
Was it necessary to shoot at a group of civilians on a humanitarian mission? Was it necessary to continue shooting at us as they left? Was it necessary for their bullets to force a grieving father to face his own mortality in the very moment he was compelled to recognise that of his son.
13 June 2009: Israeli forces have arrested 1 Israeli and 2 international solidarity activists in the West Bank village of Safa.
Around 7am, Palestinian farmers, accompanied by 15 international and 10 Israeli solidarity activists, attempted to access their land in the village of Safa to pick grape leaves. Located in the north Hebron hills, near the illegal Beit Ayn settlement, Safa is Palestinian owned land.
Settlers arrived at the scene and began to throw stones at the Palestinians. Border police were present and witnessed the stone-throwing but did not intervene. After 15 minutes at the site in Safa, the border police declared the area a Closed Military Zone. When the Palestinian, Israeli and international activists began to walk away, the settlers verbally assualted them. Two border police cars arrived and attempted to arrest an Israeli activist. Having failed to arrest the Israeli solidarity activist, the border police tried to arrest a Palestinian farmer.
Four international and two Israeli activists tried to prevent the arrest by surrounding the farmer and linking arms on the ground. The border police began to violently push and kick the activists. The soldiers pulled the hair of several activists, kicked them and yelled at them. Israeli forces also used a club to beat the activists.
Shortly thereafter, the border police arrested a German activist, a Scottish activist and an Israeli activist. The Palestinian farmer was released.
They were taken to the police station in Gush Etzion settlement and then transferred to the police station in Kyriat Arba settlement. They are still being held and accused of assaulting the soldiers.
Ni'lin demonstrators tear down barbed wire surrounding the Apartheid Wall.
Approximately 100 Palestinian, Israeli and international solidarity activists gathered today in the village of Nil’in. The atmosphere was charged following last week’s murder of Yousef Akil Srour, and demonstrators were unsure of the force that would meet them as they marched towards the Apartheid wall.
50 meters before reaching the razor wire fence that charts the intended route of the separation wall, which parts villagers from their fields, Israeli forces began firing tear gas. While those with children ran from the ensuing gas, others continued down towards the fence, yelling in Hebrew to the soldiers ‘Go home’. The group immediately dispersed and people fanned out along the ridge that runs alongside the road and razor wire. In one area youths were able to dismantle a section of the fence spanning four meters as others threw rocks onto the fence below.
There was a huge soldier presence, with more than 12 army vehicles, although they maintained a distance they shot multiple tear gas canisters (16 fired per round) from atop of the jeeps. At one point a few soldiers advanced on foot, leaving the road through a small gate, allowing them to shoot from a closer proximately. At times, they would shoot the tear gas canisters from three directions at once, making it impossible for demonstrators to reach safety.
While a few protesters were hit by tear gas canisters, no one was seriously injured. The protest ended earlier than normal, as people returned to the village fearing that the army was going to move in.
However as the army did not enter the area, the demonstration ended with a memorial for Yousef Akil Srour.
To date, Israeli occupation forces have murdered five Palestinian residents and critically injured 1 international solidarity activist during unarmed demonstrations in Ni’lin.
29 July 2008: Ahmed Mousa (10) was shot in the forehead with 5.56mm caliber live ammunition and pronounced dead upon arrival at a Ramallah hospital.
28 December 2008: Arafat Rateb Khawaje (22) was shot in the back with 5.56mm caliber live ammunition and pronounced dead upon arrival at a Ramallah hospital.
28 December 2008: Mohammed Khawaje (20) was shot in the head with 5.56mm caliber live ammunition. He died in a Ramallah hospital 3 days later on 31 December 2008.
5 June 2009: Yousef Akil Srour (36) was shot in the chest with 0.22 caliber live ammunition and pronounced dead upon arrival at a Ramallah hospital.
In total, 35 people have been shot by Israeli forces with live ammunition: 7 were shot with 5.56mm caliber live ammunition and 28 were shot with 0.22 caliber live ammunition.
Since May 2008, residents of Ni’lin have been organizing and participating in unarmed demonstrations against construction of the Apartheid Wall. Despite being deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004, the Occupation continues to build the Wall, further annexing Palestinian land.
Ni’lin will lose approximately 2,500 dunums of agricultural land when construction of the Wall is completed. Ni’lin consisted of 57,000 dunums in 1948, was reduced to 33,000 dunums in 1967, is currently 10,000 dunums and will be 7,500 dunums after completion of the Wall.
Additionally, a tunnel for Palestinians is being built underneath road 446. This tunnel will allow for the closure of the road to Palestinian vehicles, turning road 446 into an Israeli-only road. Ni’lin will be effectively split into 2 parts (upper Ni’lin and lower Ni’lin), as road 446 runs between the village. The tunnel is designed to give Israeli occupation forces control of movement over Ni’lin residents, as it can be blocked with a single military vehicle.
Upwards of 300 Palestinians, with a number of international supporters, rallied at the road to the Erez crossing in northern Gaza on Wednesday morning, calling for the crossing to be opened and an end to the 3 year long siege, in place since shortly after Hamas was elected in early 2006 and escalated dramatically following June 2007, when Hamas gained control of the Gaza Strip.
Women were a strong presence in the demonstration, as were elderly, and children. A number of ill and disabled Palestinians highlighted the importance of the crossings being opened. Nearly 340 Palestinians have died as a result of denied medical care, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Amidst the crowd of demonstrators, 5 year old Mohammed Nasser el Ghneim, a child with multiple ailments needing medical care outside. “He doesn’t see well, cannot hear, cannot speak, doesn’t walk yet, and has heart problems,” said his mother, imploring for outside help for her son.
On the other side of Erez crossing, for the past few days, members of the Coalition of Women for Peace and of Code Pink have held near-daily rallies, along with Israeli activists, calling for the opening of Erez and the passage of humanitarian aid, as well as materials to build playgrounds for the children of bombed-out Gaza.
On Monday these activists were joined by an American activist-doctor, nicknamed ‘Patch Adams’, who has long been active in medical care for Palestinians. The activists brought with them many of the everyday items Israel has banned from entering Gaza: tea, coffee, chocolate, clothes and shoes, books, hair conditioner, wood, plates and glasses, furniture, light bulbs, toys, iron, cement, paper, candles and matches, sheets, blankets, musical instruments, semolina, tahina, jam, and nuts were on the list.
Demonstrations at Erez are occurring more often, in tandem with demonstrations at the southern Rafah crossing, controlled by Egypt. At the same time, increasing numbers of delegations, aid workers, doctors, investigative teams, and journalists are, with much difficulty (and for many without success) entering via Rafah to see the post-war on Gaza devastation and the consequences of the on-going siege.
The last major delegation to enter was a 66 member Codepink delegation, whose activists met with different war survivors, civil society organizations, political figures, and who erected 3 playgrounds in Gaza. The Hope convoy days before Codepink brought truckloads of medications, as well as 25 ambulances and hospital equipment.
A UN Human Rights Council Fact-Finding Mission, led by the Justice Richard Goldstone, also passed via Rafah after having been denied permits from Israeli authorities. The 4 member team visited sites of destruction and of possible war crimes committed during Israel’s 3 week bombardment of Gaza.
As the demonstration wrapped up, news came that the delegation of 41 European parliamentarians and mayors of European cities, representing 15 countries, headed by Luisa Morgantini, vice-president of the European Parliament, had crossed into Gaza.
As the gates of Rafah closed behind them, numerous Palestinians waiting to enter Gaza were left behind, the siege still in place for non-dignitaries.
