The Norwegian government has decided to pull all of its investments from Israeli arms firm Elbit as a result of it involvement in the construction of the West Bank separation fence, the Norwegian Finance Minister announced on Thursday.
Kristin Halvorsen, speaking at a Oslo press conference, said that the decision was based on the recommendation of Norway’s Ministry of Finance council on ethics, whose role is to ensure that government investments abroad meet ethical guidelines.
“We do not wish to fund companies that so directly contribute to violations of international humanitarian law,” Halvorsen was quoted as saying in a Norwatch report.
Elbit manufactures the monitoring system installed on several parts of the West Bank separation fence.
The recommendation submitted by the Ministry of Finance council on ethics stated that it considered “the fund’s investment in Elbit to constitute an unacceptable risk of complicity in serious violations of fundamental ethical norms.”
The council is thus explicitly referring to a 2004 International Court of Justice ruling, stating that the separation fence represented a breach of international law.
Palestinian as well as Israeli anti-occupation groups, aided by Norwegian leftists, have all protested extensively against Norwegian involvement in companies involved in West Bank development and construction over last two years, which have seen an increase in Norway’s investment in Israeli firms.
Norway’s pension fund is invested in 41 different Israeli companies.
A research project by the Coalition of Women for Peace called “Who profits from the occupation” found that almost two thirds of those firms are involved in West Bank construction and development.
Shortly after 3am, Bil’in was invaded again. 4 Jeeps and a military truck entered the village with over 50 soldiers. The Israeli occupation forces raided three homes simultaneously and arrested Abed Baset Mohammed Abu Rahme (age 19). In the second house, they tried to arrest Yaseen Mohammed Ali Yaseen (21), but he was not at home. They left a military order for him to turn himself in by 9am the next day. In the third house, they wanted to arrest Mohammed Ahmed Yaseen (age 21), but did not find him at his home either.
The soldiers acted very swiftly. As they encountered many international activists who stood in their way filming and challenging their action as well as following the movement of the jeeps, the soldiers threw tear gas and sound bombs to disperse them and clear the way. They also used a laser beam on some of the activists as a means of intimidation.
At around 4am, all the military vehicles left the village exiting toward the Apartheid Wall.
“Just as a simple man named Ghandi led the successful non-violent struggle in India and simple people such as Rosa Parks and Nelson Mandela led the struggle for civil rights in the United States, simple people here in Bil’in are leading a non-violent struggle that will bring them their freedom. The South Africa experience proves that injustice can be dismantled.”
– Archbishop Desmond Tutu, during a visit to Bil’in on 27 August 2009
The Israeli military’s most recent attempt to crush Bil’in village’s ongoing popular non-violent resistance campaign against the Apartheid Wall is a wave of night raids and arrests targeting protesters and the leadership of Bil’in’s Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements.
The recent raids began concurrently with the opening of a legal trial in Montreal. The village of Bil’in has taken two companies registered in Canada (Green Park International & Green Mount International) to court for participating in war crimes by building settlements on Bil’in’s land under the 2000 Canadian Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Statute (which incorporates both the articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Rome Statute into Canadian federal law).
According to Bil’in’s attorney Emily Schaeffer, the judge Justice Louis-Paul Cullen is meant to give a decision very soon about whether the Canadian court has jurisdiction to hear Bil’in’s claims.
Since the trail began Israeli forces have arrested 30 people (most of which are under 18). Twenty-one residents of Bil’in remain in Israeli detention.
Through Israel’s interrogation and intimidation tactics, some of arrested youth have falsely ‘confessed’ that the Bil’in Popular Committee urges the demonstrators to throw stones. With such ‘confessions’, Israeli forces then proceed to raid the village at night , invade homes and arrest leaders of the non-violent struggle in the community.
Another leading Bil’in non-violent activist, Adeeb Abu Rahme, remains in detention since his arrest during a non-violent demonstration on 10 July 2009 (see report & video: https://palsolidarity.org/2009/07/7652. Adib has been charged with “incitement to damage the security of the area.”
On 29 August 2009, two additional Bil’in houses were simultaneously raided by at least 40 soldiers, arresting Ashraf Al-Khatib (age 29) and Hamru Bornat (age 24). A local cameraman, Haitham Al-Khatib, brother of the arrested Hamru, was repeatedly forcibly moved and hit, and threatened with arrest unless he stopped filming. Soldiers declared his home a “closed military zone” but could not produce any military order.
What can you do?
Attempts to criminalize the leadership of non-violent protests where curbed in the past with the help of an outpouring of support from people committed to justice from all over the world.
Please protest by contacting your political representatives, as well as your consuls and ambassadors to Israel to demand that Israel stops targeting non-violent popular resistance and release Adib Abu Rahme and all Bil’in prisoners.
The Popular Committee of Bil’in is in desperate need for funds in order to pay legal fees both for the trail in Montréal and for representing the arrested protesters in the military courts and bail.Please donate to the Bil’in legal fund through PayPal. If you would like to make a tax deductible donation in the US or Canada contact: bilinlegal@gmail.com.
The Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements
Background
The Palestinian village of Bil’in has become an international symbol of the Palestinian popular struggle. For almost 5 years, its residents have been continuously struggling against the de facto annexation of more than 50% of their farmlands, confiscated for the construction of the Apartheid Wall.
In a celebrated decision, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled on the 4 September 2007 that the current route of the wall in Bil’in was illegal and needs to be dismantled; the ruling however has not been implemented. The struggle of the village to liberate its lands and stop the illegal settlements has been internationally recognized and has earned the popular committee in Bil’in the Carl von Ossietzky Meda award.
Today, the Popular Committee of Ni’lin invited members of the Popular Committee of Bil’in and international and Israeli solidarity activists to join in the breaking of the fast with the residents of Ni’lin.
The women of the village had prepared food for this occasion which the men brought to the field at sunset. Long plastic sheets were stretched out on the ground for people to sit on and to place all the delicious dishes. It was only the men, however, who were eating in the field, the women were meant to stay at home.
The atmosphere was festive. Once everyone finished eating, some of the men spoke about the situation in Ni’lin, the land lost to the Occupation and to the Apartheid Wall.
Three injured and dozens were suffocated with tear gas during their participation at Bili’n weekly demonstration against the apartheid wall and the construction of settlements on Bili’n lands. Three protesters: Rani Burnat, Omar Attamemi, and Zuhdya Alkhatib were lightly wounded. The demonstration started at the center of the village directly after the Friday prayers, with participation of international and Israeli peace activists. In addition to Qais Abu Laila (PLC member) and a number of other comrades and members of the Palestinian National Council from the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Mr. Abu Laila and his comrades have met with representatives of the popular committee and listened to a clear explanation of them on the experience of Bil’in struggle during the past four and a half years. Although Ali Faysal one of the PNC members in Lebanon expressed his support to Bil’in struggle and he emphasized on the continuation of the struggle against the wall and the settlements.
On other hand, the PFLP revived the eighth anniversary of the martyrdom of the leader Abu Ali Mustafa who was assassinated by the Israeli aircraft, thus the participants raised pictures of Abu Ali Mustafa, Palestinian flags and slogans condemning the occupation. While the Comrade Khalida Jarar (PFLP member) had a speech about Abu Ali Mustafa and he stressed the need for national unity, and continuing struggle against the occupation.
Demonstrators walked in the village streets chanting and calling for national unity, reviving comrades from abroad, and glorifying the memory of the martyr (Abu Ali Mustafa). Upon their arrival to the wall, a group of demonstrators who wear uniforms of workers tried to dismantle the wall, to express that the Israeli has to remove the wall and to implement the resolution issued by the Israeli Supreme Court to remove the wall. The Israeli soldiers reply was throwing gas and sound bombs, were dozens were suffocated with tear gas.
On the other side, a delegation from “The Elders” organization visited Bil’in yesterday, as they had a clear idea about the suffering of Bil’in’s people, as the Delegation has expressed its solidarity with the people of Bil’in and their rejection of the settlements on their land. The organization was founded by Mr. Nelson Mandela , as it includes a group of prominent leaders in the world, Mr.Jimmy Carter, Mr. Desmond Tutu, Mr. Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Ms. Mary Robinson, and Ayla Bhatt, Gro Brundtland, the delegation was accompanied by two business men; Richard Branson, and Jeff Skoll.
The delegation visited the wall where they saw how the wall confiscates half of Bilin’s lands, although they visited the place of the weekly demonstrations at the wall area in Bil’in village, as the huge number of tear gas and sound bombs bottles were on the ground everywhere. The delegation put up a memorial on the memorial of the martyr Basem Abu Rahma.
