Evacuating the injured Palestinians Friday (Photo: Activestills)
A 20-year-old Palestinian protestor was moderately injured from a bullet fired by the security forces during a rally against the separation fence in the West Bank village of Naalin, Palestinian sources reported Friday.
An Israel Defense Forces official said the man was lightly wounded after being hit in the lower part of his body by a bullet fired from a Ruger rifle, which is used as a crowd dispersal mean. One of the protesters, Yonatan Polk, said he was standing next to the demonstrator that was shot.
“The guy was standing between 50 and 70 meters away from the soldiers, with two barbed-wire fences between them,” he said.
“Both he and the soldiers were standing behind cement blocks, meaning any arguments of their lives being in danger are far from reality. He was hit by a live bullet near his crotch. It’s a policy of using these means in order to create tension and nothing more,” he added.
Dozens of Palestinians, left-wing activists and foreigners took part in the weekly anti-fence demonstrations in the villages of Bilin and Naalin. Some 150 people protested in Naalin and about 80 in Bilin.
According to the IDF, the protestors rioted and hurled stones at the security forces, who responded with tear gas and crowd dispersal means.
Later Friday, the IDF reported that two Molotov cocktails were hurled at Border Guard vehicles in Naalin. There were no reports of damage or injury.
Efrat Weiss, Roee Nahmias and Anat Shalev contributed to this report
As we move into the cold months, many of you in the UK will be looking forward to Christmas. In the Palestinian village of Bi’lin, last weekend marked the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, a time to see family and friends and for people to eat together. But for many Palestinians, the Eid was not so festive. Rajaa Abu Rahmah, aged 19, only has one wish this festive season, to see her father freed from prison.
On 10 July 2009, Adeeb Abu Rahmah, a leading activist and organiser from the occupied West Bank village of Bi’lin, was arrested during the weekly demonstration at the Wall. A man committed to non-violent direct action, Adeeb was charged with incitement to violence, a blanket charge often used to indict leading members of Palestinian communities resisting against the confiscation of their land. A judge initially ruled that Adeeb should be released with restrictive conditions, forbidding him from attending demonstrations, but an appeal filed by the military prosecution was upheld, meaning that Adeeb would be held until the end of legal proceedings. Trials for Palestinians in Israeli military courts often last for over a year, leaving Adeebs family fatherless for the holidays.
Jody McIntyre spoke to Rajaa, Adeebs eldest daughter of eight children who is currenlty studying medicine at the All Quds University, to see how the family were coping during Eid al-Adha:
Jody McIntyre: Why do you think your father was arrested?
RA: Because he struggled against the Wall and the settlements, and to defend our land. They said in the judgement against him that they would serve a high punishment to make an example for others participating in the non-violent resistance here, so I suppose they are using my father as a symbol to dissuade others from continuing with the struggle.
JM: The Israeli authorities are trying to present Adeeb as a violent man who incites riots, but what is your father really like as a person?
RA: All the people who struggled with him every week will tell you that he is not a violent man. But more to the point, we have a right to be on our land, so you cant stop this person from resisting against an Occupying Force that has come and illegally confiscated that land. My father was fighting for his right in his own way, by going to the Wall to demonstrate, and shouting to make his voice heard. You cannot say that it is wrong for a man to defend his rights.
JM: How has your family life changed since your father went to prison?
RA: I am the eldest child, so there are no brothers to take care of the family. Most of my brothers and sisters are small children. Since my father went to jail, we have lost our main source of income, so our financial support is depleting. But it has also affected our feelings, we have no sense of security or safety now our father has been imprisoned.
My youngest sister is always crying when she thinks of our father, and all the kids are very frightened when they see the Israeli Occupation Forces. I think seeing the soldiers reminds them of why they cannot be with their father.
It has been especially difficult during the holidays, first Eid al-Fitr (the Muslim holiday marking the end of Ramadan) and now Eid al-Adha this is the second holiday we have been forced to spend without our father. The Eid is supposed to be a time to meet all the family and be happy together, but without our father here with us there is no joy. It is even more upsetting for us to think that he is not somewhere comfortable, but suffering in the cold of an Israeli military prison.
My sister Duaa is 18 years old; she was due to get married this summer, but now that our father has been imprisoned we have had to postpone the marriage until he is released.
JM: Do you know when your father will be released?
RA: The court said that it could be another 14 months, but they can renew the sentence indefinitely, so none of us know when we will see our father again.
JM: How has your fathers arrest affected your studies?
RA: This semester I am facing many problems with paying my university fees, and I keep missing the deadlines to pay. It also affects my feelings, as it is difficult to concentrate on my studies whilst I know my father is in prison. However, the experience has also made me feel stronger. As the eldest child, I know that I am responsible for my younger brothers and sisters, and I want to try to fill the hole that our father has left.
JM: What is your message to the authorities responsible for keeping your father in prison?
RA: My father hasnt done anything to you, and he has a right to defend the land you have stolen, so you must release him.
JM: When your father is released, what will be the first thing you say to him?
RA: That I missed him.
Words – Jody McIntyre
Photos – Hamde Abu Rahme [of Adeeb during demonstrations at the Wall)
This morning, a group of demonstrators in the West Bank village of Ni’lin managed to surprise the Israeli army and, using bolt cutters, cut open one of the gates in the fence built on the village’s lands. Israeli soldiers arrived at the scene and fired rubber-coated steel bullets as well as tear gas canisters at the demonstrators, followed by the use of live ammunition.
Eight people were wounded during the action. Seven demonstrators were injured by rubber-coated steel bullets, and a one and a half year-old baby was evacuated to a Ramallah hospital suffering from tear gas inhalation, caused by soldiers firing a tear gas canister into her house.
Today marks the first time Israeli soldiers invade the residential parts of Ni’lin in an attempt to suppress a demonstration, since Palestinian demonstrator Aqel Sadeq Srour was shot dead by sniper fire approximately six months ago (5 June 2009), during a protest at the village. Srour’s brother was arrested today in the village center.
Today’s response by the Israeli army illustrates the ongoing policy of escalation which the army has been implementing in Ni’ilin for the past three weeks. This policy includes reintroducing the use of 0.22 caliber live ammunition as a means of crowd dispersal – in direct contradiction to the Chief Military Attorney’s orders.
Since June 2008, five Palestinian demonstrators have been killed by soldiers’ fire during protests in Ni’ilin, including two minors – 10 year-old Ahmed Mousa and 17 year-old Yussef Amirah. A further 34 demonstrators have been injured by live ammunition, and 87 have been arrested.
As a result of the separation barrier’s construction, 3,920 dunams of Ni’lin’s lands (30% of all accessible lands) have been de-facto confiscated; this is in addition to the 1,973 dunams on which Israeli settlements have been built since 1967.
Israeli Occupation Forces arrested an elderly resident of Jayyous this week, a Palestinian village located in the Qalqilya region, that has maintained an active campaign against the terrorisation of its people and the annexation of its land by the illegal Apartheid Wall.
Mohammad Salim, a 63 year old resident of Jayyous was taken from his home in the middle of the night by Israeli Occupation Forces this week. Salim, an elderly man, was just a few short hours away from leaving for Mecca, Saudi Arabia, to make the holy pilgrimage of the Hajj when he was taken by the military. Residents – even his own family – are dumbfounded as to why he would be targeted.
This is not atypical of the military’s strategy in Jayyous – what appears a haphazard campaign of unpredictable – seemingly random – arrests and violent invasions is a methodical attempt of the army to sow the seeds of internal discontent and provocation within the village.
“They want to create problems inside the community,” says Jayyous activist Abu Azam. “They always give the excuse that people are throwing stones at the Wall, but really they just want to make us fight with each other.”
And the sheer brute force exhibited by the army must surely take its toll. Invasions occur any time during the day or night, accompanied by the sound of sirens, tear gas grenades, sound bombs and bullets – plastic, rubber-coated steel or live ammunition – announcing the arrival of Israeli jeeps inside the village. Curfew was imposed three days consecutively during the last month. Parts of the village now have only 2 days of running water a week after dozens of water tanks were damaged by bullets, while farmers have reported the death of 8 lambs and over 600 chickens from tear gas suffocation.
The danger of military violence is only one of Jayyous’ many problems. Construction of the Apartheid Wall began in Jayyous in 2002, prohibiting access of farmers to 8,600 dunums of their land. Demonstrations began almost immediately, and the Palestinian Land Defense Committee launched a case in the Israeli Supreme Court against the government. They succeeded in a 2006 ruling to re-route the Wall, returning a meager 750 dunums to the village. Almost 8,000 dunums stand on the other side, including 3 water wells. The Israeli government has refused requests for permission of residents of Jayyous to pump the water from these wells to their side of the wall. This affects not only the village itself but the surrounding region, such as the larger town of Azzoun that relies on Jayyous’ small supply of water as well, after the nearby settlement of Qarne Shomron annexed all but two of the towns’ supplying wells.
When it comes to accessing the land, the Israeli government employs bureaucracy itself as a weapon, in the form of a labyrinthine system of permit applications for farmers hoping to reach their fields. Although well over 600 families from Jayyous own farmland on the other side of the wall, only 300 permits farming permits were issued in October for farmers hoping to gain access to their crops for the yearly olive harvest. The permits issued rarely meet the needs of the farmers – such as only one or two family members being permitted access to the land, or access restricted to a few short days, entirely disproportionate to the necessary amount of time to collect crops. The situation is even worse during the rest of the year, as the number of permits issued shrinks to 120, for farmers hoping to plough, prune and work their land. Due to this, thousands of dunums of crops become unharvestable, and agriculture becomes an impossibility for many families.
Jayyous has been a prominent village in Palestinian resistance, as one of the first villages to begin demonstrating against the wall and the continued legal campaign for its removal. The recent imprisonment of Jayyous activist Mohammad Othman has brought the village’s struggle into focus. Othman was arrested at the Jordanian border to the West Bank by Israeli military as he returned from a trip to Norway to promote the BDS campaign. He has now been placed under administrative detention, the detention of an individual by the state without trial – in Othman’s case, for a minimum of three months with the possibility for a renewed term. This clear violation of human rights works in conjunction with Israel’s continued repression of popular resistance such as Jayyous’ fight against the illegal Apartheid Wall and the Israeli occupation.
Under the slogan, “Towards a Palestine free from settlements, the Wall, Apartheid roads, checkpoints and roadblocks, and for one united Palestine with no islands and cantons”, the residents of Bil’in, joined by international and Israeli activists, gathered in a protest after the Friday prayer. The protesters raised Palestinian flags and banners calling to hold on to Palestinian rights including Jerusalem, right of return, borders, access to water, the release of all detainees and removing the Wall and settlements.
A representative leader of Fatah, Mohammed al-Madaniy, and Leila Ghanam, the Governor of Ramallah and al-Bireh, joined the Bil’in residents in today’s demonstration.
A Greek group participated with the people in Bil’in to give their support. The international activists carried banners showing their solidarity with the Palestinian people and the Palestinian right to resist the occupation and live in peace on their land. A British activist, Jody McIntyre, said: “We came to be in solidarity with the Palestinians, we believe in their right to live in peace. We are here today in Bil’in because we see the Wall as an obstacle to the building of a Palestinian state”. Sasha Solanas, from the United States, said: “I’m here today to show my solidarity with the Palestinians in Bil’in on the International Day for the Solidarity with the Palestinian people. I have heard a lot about this village and the weekly protests against the Wall and settlements. I admire the struggle in Bil’in, and I’m happy to be here with you today.”
The protesters marched towards the Wall built on the land of Bil’in chanting and singing slogans to resist the occupation, hold on to the Palestinian rights, and a national unity among the Palestinians. When the demonstration reached the razor wire placed by Israeli soldiers to block the protesters, the Israeli army announced a closed military zone, but the protest kept moving towards the gate. The Israeli soldiers fired teargas canisters and stun grenades, dozens suffered teargas inhalation.
