Tag: Apartheid Wall

Israel jails Palestinian peace activists

Mel Frykberg | Inter Press Service

18 January 2010

Israel has long argued that Palestinians should pursue their political objectives in a non-violent way. However, several prominent Palestinian peace activists have recently been arrested and jailed for doing just that.

Abdallah Abu Rahme, 39, the coordinator of the Bi’lin Popular Committee, which has challenged Israel’s illegal expropriation of Palestinian land both in an Israeli court and a Canadian one, has been charged with “illegal arms possession, stone throwing and incitement.”

The “illegal arms possession” charge relates largely to a protest exhibition Abu Rahme had made out of spent tear-gas canisters and plastic-coated rubber bullets, shot by Israeli soldiers, and assembled to form a large peace sign.

The canisters and bullets had been aimed at unarmed demonstrators protesting Israel’s separation wall which divides Bi’lin villagers from their agricultural land.

Bi’lin, a small village near Ramallah, has lost about half of its agricultural land to the wall, depriving farmers of their livelihoods.

The Israelis also allege Abu Rahme was in possession of M16 bullets.

On hearing the charge, Abu Rahme’s Israeli lawyer Gaby Lasky, asked, “What’s next? Charging protesters money for the bullets shot at them?’’

“We have evidence to challenge the Israel Defence Force’s (IDF) version of events. A number of Palestinian youngsters were pressured by the military into making false confessions after they were arrested at night, blindfolded and handcuffed,” Lasky told IPS.

Abu Rahme’s supporters include South African Nobel Peace Prize winner and former anti-apartheid activist Archbishop Desmond Tutu as well as former U.S. president Jimmy Carter and former Irish president Mary Robinson. Ex-Norwegian prime minister Gro Brundtland has also expressed support for Abu Rahme’s activities.

In 2008 Abu Rahme was awarded the Carl Von Ossietzky Medal for outstanding service in the pursuit of human rights by the board of trustees of the International League for Human Rights.

Israel banned him from travelling to Germany to attend last December’s award ceremony. Shortly before he was arrested IPS spoke with Abu Rahme, a school teacher, on the phone as he had gone into hiding and was unable to attend a pre-arranged interview.

“The Israeli soldiers have been targeting my home regularly. They break down doors and burst in at night, leaving my wife and young children traumatised by the continual raids. They have also been targeting the village as a whole arresting and assaulting people,” he told IPS from an undisclosed location.

“I didn’t expect them to target me because I have always been very open about my peaceful, anti-occupation activities and have done nothing illegal,” added Abu Rahme.

The Israeli authorities have for some time expressed frustration at their inability to crush the civil resistance organised by the Bi’lin Popular Committee even with the excessive use of military force.

The Israeli military informed Lasky that they would seek legal means to stop the weekly protests, during which a number of Palestinians lost their lives and several internationals and Israelis sustained serious injuries, against the separation wall.

Abu Rahme’s involvement in the protest marches led to Israel’s vague and blanket charge of “incitement”. Abu Rahme’s Popular Committee also successfully challenged the route the separation barrier had taken through Bi’lin land, with an Israeli court ordering its rerouting.

The Israeli military to date has refused to implement the court’s ruling but this has not lessened the moral victory achieved. The International Court of Justice at the Hague also ruled the separation wall illegal.

The Bi’lin Popular Committee has also taken the Israeli authorities to court in Canada over the involvement of two Canadian companies in illegal settlement building on Bi’lin land.

However, Abu Rahme is not the only peaceful activist to be targeted by the Israelis as they continue their crackdown on other Palestinian dissenters.

Muhammad Othman, 33, from Jayyous village in the northern West Bank, was also held in administrative detention, or without charge, since September last year until he was recently released. Othman has been heavily involved in the Anti-Apartheid Wall campaign.

Like Bi’lin, Jayyous has lost land to the separation barrier. An Israeli court also ruled that the wall cutting through Jayyous land had to be rerouted.

Last year Othman had travelled to Norway where he met with senior Norwegian officials to explain human rights abuses in the West Bank.

Norway’s national Pension Fund has subsequently divested from Elbit, the Israeli company which provides Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and other military technology to the IDF in addition to security systems for the separation wall and settlements.

Despite being abused during interrogation his interrogators were unable to charge Othman with anything, so they resorted to the administrative detention procedure which allows mostly Palestinian prisoners to be held without trial for months at a time.

Administrative detention orders can be renewed regularly and some prisoners have been detained for several years.

Jerusalem resident Jamal Juma, 47, the coordinator of the “Stop the Wall” Campaign was also arrested and held without access to his lawyer. Juma’s work has included addressing numerous civil society and U.N. conferences as well as writing a number of articles critical of Israel. He was released several days ago.

It is doubtful that Israel’s crackdown on the activists will work. “I visited Abdallah recently in prison. He is neither afraid nor bowed and has vowed to continue his activities whatever Israel does,” Abu Rahme’s wife Majida told IPS.

Building a different Middle East

Joel Beinin | The Nation

15 January 2010

Like every other woman in her village Umm Hasan wears a headscarf. Her husband and other male relatives are not on the scene. But this is not an obstacle to her animated interactions with the sixteen Israelis and foreigners she has never previously met but welcomes into her home. Among the visitors are a German and a Serb who are making a film about Palestinian hip-hop. Everyone has come to participate in the weekly demonstration against the separation barrier organized by the local Popular Committee.

While the Israelis make preparations for the demonstration, Umm Hasan tells the filmmakers about the current situation in the village. Neria, a young Israeli woman who attended a bilingual primary school, makes a poster in Arabic and Hebrew, “so the [Israeli] soldiers will know what it means” with the slogan: “They destroyed the wall in Berlin; tomorrow we’ll destroy it in Palestine.”

As the visitors arrive, Umm Hasan’s oldest son, Hasan, from whom her name is derived, is leading Friday prayers for a “dissident” congregation. His congregants support the weekly protests. The imam of the “official” village mosque does not. The consensus is that the imam and his followers fear that if they join in they will lose their permits to work in Israel or in the nearby quarry owned by a rich Palestinian who sells stone to Israeli contractors.

Hasan and his brother Muhammad are leaders of the Popular Committee of Ma’asara. Another leader, Mahmud, is currently in France on a political mission. Hasan is a supporter of Fatah, Muhammad supports the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and Mahmud supports the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. But these differences are of little consequence, because the Popular Committee includes all the factions in the village.

When Hasan returns from prayers, he serves tea to the guests. There is barely enough time to finish drinking before the guests depart to join about two dozen villagers for the demonstration. Muhammad stays behind because he is under a military court order that forbids him from participating. If Israeli authorities saw him attending a demonstration, he would forfeit a bond of 15,000 Israeli shekels (about $3,950).

The demonstrators march through neighboring villages, with a total population of about 10,000, to Umm Salamuna. There, several kilometers away from the separation barrier, twenty Israeli soldiers in full battle gear stand behind a razor wire, which they have stretched across the road to block the protesters’ advance. Haggai, a young Israeli man who was jailed for two years for refusing to be drafted into the army, addresses the soldiers in Hebrew. Showing them a hand-drawn poster-board map of the area, he explains, “You are not in the territory of the state of Israel and you could not do what you are now doing inside Israel. We are demonstrating peacefully on Palestinian land. You are violating international law. Don’t be surprised if, when you repress peaceful demonstrations, some Palestinians resort to violence. You can choose not to obey your orders.” Jum’a, a member of the Popular Committee, addresses the crowd in Arabic and English, emphasizing that this is a nonviolent demonstration.

Nonetheless, Rami, one of the villagers, is arrested. His apparent offense was stepping on the razor wire. Umm ‘Iyad, an older woman wearing a headscarf and a shawl in the colors of the Palestinian flag, crosses over the razor wire, undisturbed by the soldiers, and proceeds to negotiate for Rami’s release. During the negotiations a drum corps of five young Israeli women and one man and the Palestinian boys they have been teaching to drum sustains a steady succession of beats punctuated by chants in Arabic, Hebrew and English.

The soldiers do not deny that they are holding Rami hostage to force the demonstration to end. Eventually, an arrangement is reached. The soldiers release Rami with his ID card, which he must have to cross any of the more than 500 barriers and checkpoints the army maintains in the West Bank. The demonstration ends.

***

In mid-2002 Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon authorized the construction of a separation barrier (known in Israeli parlance as the “fence” and in Palestinian parlance as the “apartheid wall”). About 85 percent of the barrier’s trajectory is to the east of the Green Line that marked the border between Israel and the West Bank from 1949 to 1967–i.e., inside the West Bank. The construction of the barrier is incomplete and its final trajectory is still contested. But if there is ever a negotiated resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the Israeli consensus supports annexing Palestinian agricultural lands and Jewish settlements lying to the west of the barrier. This region is now designated as “the seam zone” (kav ha-tefer)–an indeterminate area that is not (yet) legally in Israel proper, but which has been effectively detached from the West Bank.

On July 9, 2004, the International Court of Justice ruled that “the construction by Israel of the wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and its associated regime are contrary to international law.” In Israel this was widely considered yet another confirmation that “the whole world is against us” and that Israel “shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.” Most Israelis do not care to know what happens on the other side of the barrier.

There are currently also weekly demonstrations in the villages of Bil’in and Ni’ilin. There, the demonstrators can actually reach the separation barrier, climb on it or open the gate to it. These actions are “illegal,” so the army uses considerably more force to disperse them than in Ma’asara, firing volleys of high-velocity tear gas canisters, percussion grenades, stink bombs, rubber-coated metal bullets and live 22-caliber ammunition. While the demonstrations are nonviolent, in some villages youths throw stones at the Israeli soldiers after the official demonstration is over.

Bil’in (pop. 1,800) has held weekly demonstrations against the separation barrier since March 2005, the longest continuous nonviolent popular mobilization in Palestinian history. Bil’in has achieved international renown and is the subject of a film, Bil’in, My Love, made by Shai Carmeli Pollak, one of the regular Israeli demonstrators. Since 2006 the village has hosted annual solidarity conferences attended by luminaries who also participate in the Friday demonstrations. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan was shot by a rubber-coated steel bullet at a demonstration during the April 2007 solidarity conference. European Parliament vice president Luisa Morgantini and other dignitaries were injured in a demonstration in June 2008. In August 2009 six members of “The Elders,” a group of widely respected, retired political figures–Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Ela Bhatt, Gro Brundtland, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Jimmy Carter and Mary Robinson–visited Bil’in.

Bil’in is also the symbol of a certain victory for popular struggle against the separation barrier. On September 4, 2007, the Israeli Supreme Court ordered that the barrier, whose current trajectory cuts the village off from about one-quarter of its remaining agricultural lands, must be redirected. Chief Justice Dorit Beinish’s opinion stated that the court was “not convinced that it is necessary for security-military reasons to retain the current route that passes on Bil’in’s lands.” Despite this unequivocal ruling, the Israeli army has failed to implement the court’s order. The barrier remains, and hundreds of olive trees uprooted to make way for it have not been replaced.

Therefore, the weekly demonstrations have continued, and the Israeli reaction to the mobilization at Bil’in has become more fierce. In April 2009 a tear gas canister shot by the army during a demonstration killed Basim Ibrahim Abu Rahmah. In December 2009 Basim’s cousin and the coordinator of the Bil’in Popular Committee against the Wall, Abdallah Abu Rahmah, was arrested. He was charged with possession of weapons because he maintains a “museum” in his home displaying spent tear gas canisters, percussion grenades and bullets fired by the Israeli army at unarmed demonstrators. In response, the Elders’ chair, Desmond Tutu, released a statement saying, “My fellow Elders and I met Abu Rahmah and his colleague Mohammad Khatib in August when we visited Bil’in…. We were impressed by their commitment to peaceful political action, and their success in challenging the wall that unjustly separates the people of Bil’in from their land and their olive trees. I call on Israeli officials to release Abu Rahmah immediately and unconditionally.”

On November 6, 2009, to mark the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, some 300 demonstrators at Ni’ilin (pop. 4,600) toppled a section of the eight-meter-high wall that separates the village from part of its lands. The demonstrations have been particularly violent there during the past year. Five residents have been killed and dozens have been wounded. In March 2009 an American, Tristan Anderson, was severely injured at Ni’ilin. In late 2009 he was still hospitalized with brain damage and a fractured skull.

During 2009 Bil’in, Ni’ilin, and Ma’asara were the most visible part of the story. But there is much more. Village-based Palestinian popular resistance supported by Israelis and internationals began in the fall of 2003, when local Palestinians and Israelis stood together against the separation barrier in the villages of Jayyus and Mas’ha.

On November 9, 2003, Budrus (pop. 1,400) became the first village to organize a formal weekly march from the village center to the site of the construction of the barrier. Two soldiers were wounded by stones in a demonstration at which there were no Israelis and foreigners. Wounded soldiers make news in Israel, so the Palestinian struggle against the separation barrier also received publicity.

Jonathan Pollak, a young Israeli activist, came to Budrus and asked ‘Ayid Mrar, a leader of the recently formed Popular Committee, “How can we help?” ‘Ayid replied, “It’s very important that you come and participate with us.” Relating the story later ‘Ayid recalls, “When foreigners and Israelis began coming to my house, people didn’t like it at first. People had never seen the other face of Israelis. They thought Jews are either soldiers or settlers. Then Israelis started to come to demonstrations. Now people accept and welcome it.”

During one of the weekly demonstrations Iltizam, ‘Ayid’s teenage daughter, organized a women’s contingent, which broke through the army lines and stopped the bulldozers from working. Women in Ma’asara did the same, under the leadership of Umm Hasan. Budrus too, is the subject of a film. Budrus, directed and written by Julia Bacha, held its world premier at the December 2009 Dubai International Film Festival, with ‘Ayid and Iltizam in attendance.

There have also been demonstrations in many other villages whose lands have been confiscated due to the construction of the separation barrier. The Israeli army and border police have killed some twenty Palestinians (six in 2009 alone) while attempting to disperse these protests. Hundreds have been injured and arrested. Many of the organizers are under military orders banning them from participating in the weekly demonstrations.

Israelis have joined the demonstrations, in large numbers on special occasions, and in smaller numbers on a regular basis. The most persistent Israelis have been associated with Anarchists against the Wall, a name given to the group by the Israeli media but which they accepted for its provocative character. A good number of the anarchists and other younger Israeli activists have learned Arabic as a result of their extensive stays in West Bank villages or through study motivated by political commitment. They have the wounds to prove that commitment. Jonathan Pollak was hit by a tear gas canister at one of the Bil’in demonstrations and suffered two brain hemorrhages and a wound requiring twenty-three stitches. Matan Cohen was shot in the head with a rubber-coated steel bullet at a demonstration at Beit Sira. He later enrolled in Hampshire College and became a prominent organizer of the campaign there that culminated in the college endowment fund divesting from six companies doing business in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. An Israeli court recently accepted the contention of the border police who shot Matan that his wound could have been caused by a stone with the exact dimensions of a bullet.

Internationals, many organized by the International Solidarity Movement, have spent time in the villages, eaten and slept in local homes and participated in the weekly demonstrations. They have been tear gassed, wounded and killed, most famously Rachel Corrie, who was crushed to death by a Caterpillar bulldozer in March 2003 while trying to prevent it from demolishing a Palestinian home in the Gaza Strip city of Rafah.

Palestinians, Israelis and foreigners jointly confronting the Israeli army; locally organized and led protests, substantially nonviolent and uniting adherents of all the Palestinian factions; peacefully demonstrating Palestinians, Israelis and foreigners tear gassed, severely wounded and killed by the Israeli army; women wearing headscarves playing an active and independent political role: these are not the common images of Israeli occupation and Palestinian resistance in North American journalistic, diplomatic and scholarly discourse. But they are central components of an ongoing movement deeply rooted in the social fabric of the West Bank. While not necessarily opposed to existing political parties or urban-based elites, this movement has been organized by local forces seeking to unite all the elements of village communities in order to protect their lands from the encroachments of the separation barrier.

Despite its peasant base and leadership, the movement is extremely sophisticated. ‘Ayid Mrar says, “If we resist a bulldozer we aren’t opposing the Israeli soldier. We are opposing the bulldozer [coming to destroy our land.] We are resisting the wall. If the Israeli soldier puts himself between us and the bulldozer, he is putting himself in danger. But we have no weapons, and there is no violence or fighting on our part…. Our problem is not with Israel and not with Jews. Jonathan is a Jew. Our problem is with the occupation. If we want to have a developed, peaceful region, we have to work together. We can have peace on the basis of equality.”

Toward the end of 2009 a national coordinating committee of the local popular committees was being formed. Jonathan Pollak is the media coordinator for Israel and international media and webmaster. His first effort in this capacity was an op-ed on the Huffington Post blog about the arrest of Abdallah Abu Rahmah. Jonathan believes that the wave of recent arrests (over thirty in Bil’in alone since last June) and the escalation of violence against demonstrators are due to Israel’s fear of “a paradigm shift to grassroots resistance.”

The mobilizations are rooted in the particular dynamics of each village and depend on the balance of local political forces, family dynamics and economic factors like the possibility of obtaining permits to work in Israel. Together they form a peasant-based social movement that is becoming increasingly conscious of its political significance and filling the void in Palestinian leadership created by the futile struggle between the Palestinian Authority, dominated by Fatah, and Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.

Is this movement likely to contribute to a resolution of the conflict anytime soon? ‘Ayid Mrar is doubtful. “I don’t know when the occupation will end,” he says. “Not in one or two years. Maybe in a hundred. If the Palestinian people achieve their freedom, we don’t want relations of enmity with Israel. We want to build a different Middle East.”

Israeli forces invade Bil’in following Friday demonstration, shoot live ammunition

16 January 2010

Eight demonstrators were injured today in Bil’in along with dozens who suffered tear-gas inhalation during a regular Friday protest against the Wall and subsequent army invasion into the village. The army used live ammunition, rubber-coated steel bullets and tear-gas grenades and canisters against the unarmed crowd.

The demonstration, called by the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, was joined by dozens of international and Israeli activists. Speeches were made commemorating the Palestinian martyrs, especially the late president Yasser Arafat and Bil’in resident Bassem Abu Rahmah. Bassem died after he was hit by a tear-gas canister the army shot at him from a short distance.

Demonstrators marched towards the site of the Apartheid Wall, carrying a twenty-meter long Palestinian flag. As every Friday, the protesters tried to reach their land confiscated by the Wall and nearby settlements. Immediately after the march arrived, the army, stationed behind the Wall, started shooting tear-gas and rubber-coated steel bullets. Four residents of Bil’in, three Palestinian journalists and an Israeli activist were injured. At least one of them had to be taken to the hospital in Ramallah for treatment.

After the demonstration ended, the army entered the village and attempted to arrest two Palestinian activists. When the Israeli and international activists physically intervened in order to stop the arrests, the Israeli soldiers shot live ammunition into the air and attempted to surround the demonstrators.

The Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Bil’in were also demanding the release of Abdallah Abu Rahmah, the coordinator of the Committee, and Adeeb Abu Rahmah. They also protested against the arrest and continued detention of Ibrahim Ameera, Hassan Moussa and Zaydon Ameera, leaders and members of the Popular Committee in Ni’lin as well as all other Palestinian political prisoners. The Bil’in Popular Committee condemned the latest detention of Tahsin Yaqin, coordinator of the National Popular Committee in north west Jerusalem and the invasion of the houses of Mahmood Zawahreh, Hasan Berjeyyeh and Mohammad Berjeyyeh the leaders of the Popular Committee in al-Ma’asara.

Fencing match

Avi Issacharoff | Ha’aretz

1 January 2010

BIL’IN-NA’ALIN – Friday, 11 A.M. There is another hour until the onset of the weekly ritual. The participants are in face-off mode. On the “Israeli” side of the fence, south of the village of Na’alin – a three-minute drive from the city of Modi’in, which is halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv – many Israel Defense Forces and Border Police jeeps have taken their places, along with the officers, the binoculars and the weapons. All the entrances to the village have been blocked to ensure the enemy cannot send in reinforcements.

It’s January 1, 2010, the anniversary of the establishment of Fatah, and the movement has decided to mark the event at the traditional Friday demonstration in the village. Israeli intelligence forecasts a particularly high turnout.

About 10 minutes away, Mohammed Khatib, a 36-year-old father of four, is walking around near the mosque in Bil’in and smiling like a little boy. He is a member of the Supreme Coordinating Committee, the coordinating body of the popular committees – a term borrowed from the first intifada – which are responsible for organizing the demonstrations. He is about to leave the village, due to an order issued against him by the State of Israel, prohibiting him from being in Bil’in between noon and 6 P.M. on Fridays. During those hours, the order stipulates, he has to “report to the police station closest to his home.”

Accordingly, Khatib, who gets legal advice from Israeli lawyers, will soon travel to Ramallah, to the Palestinian police station there. “No one ever said which police, and that is the closest station to my home,” he says, still smiling.

It’s 11:30. The center of the village is filling up with foreign correspondents, foreign volunteers and Israelis. Some of the activists are from the group known as Anarchists Against the Wall. There are few Palestinians, though this does not seem to worry Khatib.

“I am not afraid that the army will succeed in ending the struggle in Bil’in,” he says. “It is true that some of the village residents do not participate, because they understand that this activity will not be stopped in any case. Even if all the demonstrators are arrested tomorrow, the protest will continue with the help of the international activists. Our effort at this time is aimed at something much larger than Bil’in or Na’alin: We want a popular nonviolent struggle in all the territories, which in the end will succeed for the simple reason that it is just. That is the right way from our point of view.”

Stones yes, firearms no

It started at the end of 2003 in the village of Mas’ha in the northern West Bank (where an Israeli demonstrator, left-wing peace activist Gil Naamati, was wounded by IDF fire) and then spread to the village of Budrus, not far from Highway 443, near the Mitkan Adam army base. It was in Budrus that the demonstrators scored their first successes by stopping the Israeli bulldozers and forcing a change in the route of the barrier. The struggle spread to Biddu, a village outside Har Adar, outside Jerusalem; to Beit Lahia, on Highway 443; and elsewhere. The demonstrators suffered casualties as the IDF responses became harsher. In February 2004, for example, two young Palestinians were killed and about 70 wounded in a single day of demonstrations.

Israelis were involved in the demonstrations from the outset. Meanwhile, casualties sustained by Palestinian civilians led to heightened support for such activism and the idea of the popular struggle increasingly entered the Palestinian consciousness. Ironically, the IDF’s aggressive policy against the demonstrators had the effect of increasing their number.

The basic underlying goal of the struggle remains unchanged: to alter the route of the separation fence, which passes through land belonging to Palestinian villagers, some of them farmers. (In September 2007, the High Court of Justice ruled that the route of the barrier in Bil’in had to be changed, but in practice nothing was done.) The demonstrators are demanding the removal of the barrier from their land, while Israeli security forces are bent on evicting the demonstrators, who are interfering with the earth-moving work or are trying to damage the wall itself.

Still, what makes Bil’in and Na’alin different? Why have these two villages come to symbolize the Palestinian struggle, to the point where even Fatah decided to hold a procession – the central event marking its anniversary celebrations – there?

The groundwork for the separation fence in Bil’in began at the end of 2004, Mohammed Khatib relates: “Our activity at that time was only symbolic, on a small scale. After all, this is a small village. The turning point came on May 4, 2005. We tied ourselves to olive trees. That sent a powerful message to Israel, but through the use of totally nonviolent means. Our aim was to create a triangle of activists: Palestinian-Israeli-international. We welcomed every Israeli who wanted to take action against the occupation. Even soldiers came to express solidarity. Everyone who took off his uniform, “ahalan wa sahalan” – “welcome.” Our goal is not the soldier who guards the fence; it is the fence itself. We have no intention of killing the fence guards and we have no problem with the army.

“Our method led a great many volunteers from abroad and Palestinians to join us,” he continues. “We were able to convey the Bil’in story in the media. We were accurate about the details. We did not make up anything. Abdullah Abu Rahma [who was arrested by Israel about a month ago] coordinated the activity with the Arab media, and I was in charge of the Israeli and foreign media.”

The most striking resemblance between the weekly demonstrations and the first intifada – “the intifada of the stones” – is in the way they took shape. They began with ordinary people who owned land and homes on the route along which the fence was built. The struggle was spearheaded not by politicians or armed members of organizations, but by people with no special connection to Fatah or Hamas. At one point some activists from Bil’in set up a body they called a “popular committee.”

The committee did not have a specific leader and was not guided by any political body; indeed, the Palestinian factions joined this struggle and sought to enjoy its fruits only after it had already proved successful. This followed the pattern of the first intifada, when popular committees in many villages or districts led the struggle, determined its character and organized actions against the occupation – with the Palestine Liberation Organization and Hamas joining in only afterward and not exerting real influence until a relatively late stage.

At present, popular committees are active in a number of Palestinian villages, including Bil’in, Na’alin, Maasra (near Bethlehem), in the southern Mount Hebron area, in villages on the ridge outside Nablus, in the Jordan Rift Valley and elsewhere. Each committee has representatives of the official factions, but also activists whose only association is with the idea of the popular struggle.

“We consider every citizen who wishes to take part in the demonstrations to be a member of the popular committee,” says Dr. Rateb Abu Rahma, a leading member of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, and a lecturer in psychology at Al-Quds Open University. Below his home there is a kind of commune of activists from the International Solidarity Movement.

“The secret of our success is unity of the popular struggle against the fence and the settlements. The fence is not an insurance policy for the Israelis – it is a plundering of land. The settlements and the fence lie on Bil’in land and they are not legal. From our point of view, the popular struggle is preferable to violence, because only Palestinians will take part in a military struggle, whereas everyone can participate in a popular struggle.

“It is the army that starts the violence against the demonstrators,” he continues. “On Christmas Day, five youngsters dressed up as Santa Claus. We decorated a Christmas tree with empty teargas canisters. That was our message: Everywhere in the world people decorate their trees with flowers, but we did it with teargas grenades. We placed the tree next to a gate in the fence, and the army immediately started to fire teargas. Another example is Bassem Abu Rahma, who was killed from a direct hit by a teargas grenade. So which side is using violence?”

There is a great deal of stone throwing and many soldiers and Border Police are wounded.

“We are against stone throwing. It’s true that there are some who throw stones, but they are young people who often do not listen to us. We are against the use of force or any form of violence. We have adopted many ideas from outside – from foreign activists and from Israelis. The participation of Israelis – from groups such as Anarchists Against the Wall, Gush Shalom [The Israeli Peace Bloc], Yesh Din [Volunteers for Human Rights], Rabbis for Human Rights, Arab MKs – together with the nonviolent measures we have taken, make it clear that we do not intend to break the law. Regrettably, many in Israel would rather have the Palestinians perpetrate terrorist attacks, so the whole world will side with the Israeli government.”

Pastoral backdrop

Meanwhile, the demonstration in Na’alin has begun. On the hilltop, a few dozen young Palestinians look down at the wadi below, the scene of the events. Groups of masked people try to approach the fence; arrayed against them are Border Police and soldiers equipped mainly with rubber-coated bullets and teargas grenades. Every few seconds a grenade is fired, pushing the masked youths back toward the village.

“You maniac soldier – come on, you homo, let’s see what you’re made of,” the Palestinians shout in Hebrew at the troops.

One of the groups of stone throwers has paused to rest under an olive tree. When they remove their masks, it turns out that one of them is about 40 and the others are teenagers.

“Hey, son of a bitch, come over here,” one of them shouts.

Green hills, olive trees, a pastoral scene. Only the sounds of gunfire and the curses mar the landscape.

One masked person walks in the direction of the soldiers with his hands on his groin. “They aim the rubber bullets here,” he says, pointing at his crotch.

The older man lights a cigarette, and imitates the soldiers’ cries to the demonstrators to leave, in bad Arabic. The youngsters repeat the joke. Suddenly, G., a youth wearing a yellow soccer jersey, comes running over. “Look!” he shouts. “I have two teargas grenades that didn’t explode.”

Asked if he is afraid, G. says: “No. We come here every Friday, and either we come out alive or not.”

The older man adds that during the day, there is little cause for fear. “It’s a lot scarier at night. They come at 3 A.M., when everyone is asleep, and arrest you. One time undercover men came, dressed as Arabs. But it does them no good.”

What is the point of the demonstrations? Are there any practical results, we ask. “There is no result as yet,” says Mohammed, 30. “In practice there is no change. What’s important for us is to teach the coming generations that we will not give up our land.”

Some of the stone throwers are dressed for the occasion, wearing military overalls, kaffiyehs and headbands. They put on the masks again, take up their slingshots and prepare for another round against the army. A quick sprint, the stone is hurled, then a fast retreat.

Mingling with the young Palestinians are Israelis who refrain from violent activity: Sarit Michaeli, a spokesperson for the human rights organization B’Tselem, who is filming the events; Yifat, from Anarchists Against the Wall, who is at the forefront of the young people at every site; and Yonatan Polak, formerly the spokesperson for the anarchist group and now a member of the Supreme Coordinating Committee of the popular committees. Polak, 27, is the committee’s liaison with the Israeli media. He has been taking part in these demonstrations for seven years. Three times a week, he comes to Bil’in or Na’alin.

He notes that there are usually between 5 and 20 Israelis in an average demonstration such as the one at Na’alin. “The sucess story at Bil’in and Na’alin is not related to the participation of the Israelis, even if that is what all kinds of people think,” Polak says. “There is an awakening here of a popular protest, as a result of the disappointment over the armed resistance and the political path. In the past, the Palestinian factions shied away from the popular struggle, but these days they are joining in.”

Asked who starts the violence, the army or the Palestinians, Polak replies: “It varies from time to time, honestly. There is no fixed pattern. Today it was simultaneous.”

Suddenly shouts are heard, calls for first aid. A boy is bleeding from the head, hit by a rubber bullet. Some Border Police managed to outflank a group of children who were throwing stones. There are shouts of “Allahu akbar” – “God is great.” Polak identifies the wounded boy as the sheikh’s 9-year-old son, and calls him with the bad news.

Targeting the leaders

Casualties, including deaths, are not unusual at the weekly demonstrations.

“It would be hard to describe the struggle as nonviolent,” Polak says. “That is more suited to Israeli or international terminology. Nineteen demonstrators have been killed in actions like this since 2004, so it is ridiculous to talk about nonviolence in this context.”

Five Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in Na’alin, including two boys, aged 10 and 17, and dozens have been wounded. In Bil’in, Bassem Abu Rahma was killed and many others were wounded. Another eight demonstrators in Na’alin were wounded by regular live ammunition (5.56 mm. bullets) and 28 others by 0.22 inch bullets, which have been banned for use by the military advocate general. The Yesh Din organization has submitted many complaints in an attempt to prompt investigations of the behavior of the Border Police and the soldiers in these and other cases. To date, only on indictment has been filed. However, in addition to the many casualties, since last June the IDF and the Shin Bet security service have been engaged in a concerted effort aimed at the leaders of the struggle. Thirty-one residents of Bil’in (5 percent of the population) have been arrested in this six-month period, 15 of whom are still in detention; in Na’alin, 94 residents (7 percent of the population) have been arrested since May 2008. Indictments have been filed against three members of the popular committee in Bil’in, mainly for incitement. The IDF operates in the village almost every weekend.

“They arrested Abdullah on December 10,” Rateb Abu Rahma says about his brother. “He is accused of stone throwing, incitement and being in possession of means of combat. It’s almost a joke. There was an exhibition that an Israeli held at Abdullah’s place of various weapons found in the fields of Bil’in. So they accused him of possession. He is 39, a teacher in a Christian school and a university lecturer. Is he going to use violence? He was then accused of throwing stones. They took one of the boys in the village and interrogated him. In his testimony he named dozens of people who threw stones with him, including Abdullah. So it’s obvious they read out the names to him and told him to sign.”

Indeed, the summary of the boy’s interrogation, which was obtained by Haaretz, is a ludicrous document. Page after page of “confessions,” with hardly any questions asked and mention of the names of no fewer than 68 people, alleged to have taken part in stone throwing with him. The boy has been released, but Abdullah Abu Rahma is still in detention.

Help from America

Every day, Mohammed Khatib goes to the offices of the Supreme Coordinating Committee in Ramallah, where the activity of the popular committees throughout the West Bank is coordinated. The coordinating committee also reminds one of the United National Leadership, which was at the forefront of the first intifada and maintained ties between the regions and the various factions.

Indeed, the government of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is now underwriting some of the activities of the Supreme Coordinating Committee. A special PA ministry is in charge of liaising with the committee. Fayyad’s spokesman, Jamal Zakout, who was a member of the United National Leadership in the first intifada, is an adviser to the coordinating committee. In many senses, the grassroots level has forced the new style of struggle upon the leadership.

However, financial aid is not confined to the Palestinian community: Both the government of Spain and the United Nations are paying for activists’ legal protection and assisting in funding their publicity campaign. According to Khatib, many other consulates and bodies have rallied to the success story of Bil’in-Na’alin.

“Even the U.S. consul general visited the village,” Khatib notes. “The Americans are in direct contact with us, are following the events and have offered financial aid for humanitarian projects in the village. American and Swedish diplomats attended the trial of Abdullah Abu Rahma. Our coordinating committee is working with an international committee which is trying to help.

“It’s true that we have problems at the local level,” he continues. “We are trying to persuade the Palestinian public of the importance of our struggle. The problem is that many of them do not yet understand our dialogue with the Israelis, for example. But in the end, I feel today that I am part of a group that is changing history.”

As evening approaches, the demonstration in the village breaks up. “Only” one demonstrator was wounded today. The young people return home with teary eyes from the grenades. They will be back next week.

West Bank Popular Leaders Arrested in Ni’ilin

Popular Struggle Coordination Committee

12 December 2010

For immediate release:

Ibrahim Amirah and Hassan Mousa, members of the Popular Committee Against the Wall in Ni’ilin, were arrested tonight from his home during a night-time raid tonight. Amirah and Mousa, together with another man, Zaydoun Srour, were arrested under suspicion of organizing anti-Wall demonstrations in the village.

At around 3:00am tonight, a military force of 15 armored jeeps and about a hundred Israeli soldiers invaded the village of Ni’ilin and surrounded the home of Ibrahim Amirah, the coordinator of Ni’lin’s Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements. After forcefully entering his home, soldiers extracted Amirah from his bed, searched the house and arrested him.

Amirah has previously been arrested twice under the same suspicion of organizing demonstrations against the Wall in Ni’lin, but was never charged. Protests have been held in the village since May 2008.

Hassan Mousa, a high school teacher in the village and a member of the Popular Committee, was arrested immediately when soldiers entered his home last night. Srour, a well known activist in the village, was detained alongside Amirah. A simultaneous raid was also carried in the village of Bil’in tonight, where soldiers arrested 21 year old Yassin Yassin.

The arrests today are an escalation of an ongoing and extensive Israeli attempt to suppress the Palestinian popular resistance generally, and repress its leadership particularly.

Yesterday, Israel staged a night raid into Area A, near the center of Ramallah, to arrest international solidarity activist Eva Nováková for overstaying her visa. Such an incursion into Area A over an expired visa is extremely unusual. A Czech national, Nováková served as the International Solidarity Movement’s media coordinator for the past three weeks. She was deported from the Ben Gurion airport at 6am this morning.

In the past month, since 16 December, the army has staged eleven night incursions into Ni’ilin. Since may 2008, when demonstrations began in the village, 94 residents have been arrested in connection to the protests. Similar raids have been conducted in the village of Bil’in – where 34 residents have been arrested in the past six month and the cities of Nablus, Ramallah and East Jerusalem.

Among those arrested in the recent campaign are also five members of the Bil’in Popular Committee, all suspected of incitement, and include Adeeb Abu Rahmah – who has already been held in detention for almost six months and Abdallah Abu Rahmah – the Bil’in Popular Committee coordinator.

Prominent Nablus grassroots activists, Wael al-Faqeeh, as well as Jamal Juma (East Jerusalem) and Mohammed Othman (Jayyous) of the Stop the Wall NGO, involved in anti-Wall and boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigning have also been arrested recently. All three are currently being held based on secret evidence and with no charges brought against them.