Tag: Apartheid Wall - Page 71 - International Solidarity Movement

Israeli forces raid Bil’in village

17 July 2009

Israeli forces arrest Bil'in resident during ongoing night raids

On July 17 at 2am, jeeps full of soldiers invaded the village of Bil’in. After arresting Muhammed abde al Fatah Burnat (age 21), the soldiers tried removing him by foot to the military outpost. International and Palestinian activists blocked the path of the army units, demanding his immediate release. The army responded by hitting activists with their rifles, throwing percussion grenades, and spraying chemicals in activists’ faces. Additional army units arrived to dislodge the activists from the path of the arrested boy. These soldiers began chasing activists and trying to arrest them.

In the process of being chased, one of the Palestinian activists was injured. He suffered a deep gash on his leg that may require stitches and some minor lacerations on one of his arms.

The village of Bil’in has had 60 percent of its farmland confiscated by the apartheid wall and has had weekly demonstrations for the last 5 years. Recently, it has been under constant raids from the army and over 15 boys have been arrested in the last three weeks.

Bil’in under fire: peaceful resistance meets assailment

Jennifer Urgilez | MIFTAH

15 July 2009

The systematic arrest of Bil’in activists begins with the covert intrusion of Israeli soldiers into Bil’in at the stroke of midnight. From the west, soldiers cross the Separation Wall in military vehicles concealed under a blanket of darkness, each entering one by one in 10 minute intervals dropping off soldiers on the eastern side of the barrier. Five to 30 soldiers, depending on the size of the military vehicle, jump off and immediately transition into combat-mode, laying close to the ground, managing to maneuver across the land on their elbows, while signaling the army car to recede back into isolation within two to three minutes of ensuring no opposition in sight.

From here, the soldiers clandestinely begin their operation towards the village in silence, veiled by the obscurity of night. They slowly proceed without flashlights, some wearing military camouflage paint while others, black masks. The soldiers circumvent the most direct route into the heart of Bil’in, executing their mission through neglected back roads and fields, keeping a careful eye on the lookout for Palestinians, ready to drop and hide. Often, the activists stand on their rooftops, attempting to catch the soldiers in the act and forewarning each other of the troops’ coming. Upon receiving word, Abdullah Abu Rahmah and other activists immediately get in their cars and pursue the predators only to find no evidence of their nearing. Raids usually comprised of approximately 100 soldiers divided into groups of 20-30 men, each encircling the home of an accused stone-thrower at varying hours of the night, are ideal for operations in highly volatile regions, but not to detain a 16-year-old child taking part in a peaceful resistance movement.

Witnessing the injustices endured by the villagers of Bil’in as detonated tear gas bombs adorn the eastern side of the wall relates the oppression of occupation under which Palestinians are subjected. Even while its backdrop tells its tale, it was not until my interview of Abdullah Abu Rahmah, a local Bil’in villager and organizing member of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall, that this story of their subjugation to Israeli raids and arrests became known.

Cognizant of Israel’s tightening grip over the West Bank and Gaza Strip, largely as a response to the Aqsa Intifada, the villagers of Bil’in have shunned away from armed struggle, and instead, banded in uniform as a peaceful, nonviolent resistance to the Separation Wall. Setting the ground for the annexation of 49% of Bil’in territory into Israel, the Separation Wall, far from the 1949 Armistice Line, snakes well into the West Bank isolating 1,968 of Bil’in’s 4,040 dunums, or 486 of its 998 acres of land. The inception of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall in January of 2005 afforded activists ripe ground for the genesis of peaceful, Friday demonstrations reminiscent of Women in Black’s non-violent vigils in Israel demanding the “end of the occupation.” Emblematic of the overall catastrophe befallen Palestinians, activists from all walks of life—Palestinian, Israeli, and international—unite in the struggle against economic strangulation, occupation, and apartheid.

From resisting the uprooting of olive trees for the construction of the wall, to blockading the bulldozers from gaining entrance to Bil’in roads, to building a small edifice in the midst of dusk between the Modi’in Illit settlement bloc and the Separation Wall to secure access to their lands, the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall refuses to allow the Israeli military to tiptoe around UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 and the International Court of Justice July 2004 ruling declaring Israel’s Separation Wall and Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank in breach of international humanitarian law. Fighting the occupation two-dimensionally, through legal contestments and nonviolent public activism, the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall has monitored and challenged the construction of the barrier every step of the way, cornering the government of Israel in its own courtroom.

In his judgment of September 4, 2007, President D. Beinisch of the Israeli High Court of Justice ruled that the government of Israel must implement an alternative route of the separation barrier on Bil’in land relinquishing both agricultural land in the Dolev riverbed and terrain seized for future development of the eastern region of the Mattityahu settlement. Irrespective of the Israeli High Court of Justice’s decree, the Israeli government has not rerouted the barrier, rather finalized its erection, depicting the already-suspected disconnect between the Israeli government’s judicial and military branches. Inferring from President Beinisch’s judgment and Israeli military operations, settlement growth, and not security motives, lay at the heart of Israeli expansionist policy.

Despite the brokering of the Oslo Accords in 1993 partitioning the West Bank into three distinct security enclaves—Area A under absolute Palestinian Authority (PA) control, Area B under PA civil control and Israeli security control, and Area C under complete Israeli military control—as Mr. Abu Rahmah denotes, “Nothing is Area A, everything is Area C.” Commencing on June 23, 2009, the Israeli military initiated its most recent string of raids into the village of Bil’in in spite of its Area A demarcations.

In the past three weeks, 15 youth activists have been detained—13 Palestinians, one Israeli, and one American—and scores injured at Friday’s peaceful demonstration with sound bombs, tear gas canisters, rubber-coated bullets, and a foul-smelling chemical spray, a clear use of excessive force against unarmed protesters. Hence, regardless of the detainee’s culpability, an entire military unit is not needed to arrest one individual. Judging from their actions, the Israeli military’s goal is psychological warfare—the brewing of helplessness and terror among Bil’in’s 1,800 residents aimed at freezing the resistance. Surrounding the house, destroying everything in their path, and even confiscating the detainee’s mobile phone at 3:00am can certainly break Palestinian morale. Luma, Mr. Abu Rahmah’s seven-year-old daughter, depicts the constant panic in which these children live. As of late, Luma awakes in the middle of the night, sometimes in screams and tears, calling out for her father. Luma’s sleepless nights are illustrative of the emotional and psychological despair of children in conflict.

Moreover, in their attempts to dismantle the movement, the Israeli military specifically targets the youth. For example, on June 23 and 25 of 2009, four children were detained ranging from 16-17 years of age, who during interrogation were forced to release the names of peace activists and information related to the movement’s organizing body. In response, the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall, recognizing that the children do not have “experience” in these types of matters, gathered all the youths and with the assistance of a lawyer, “trained” the children on how to act during an Israeli interrogation, and further instructed them not to answer any questions—“I don’t want to speak. I have rights.”

If the systematic arrest and injuring of activists is the military’s methodological plan to demolish the movement, it fails to understand the struggle’s resilience—“If they want to arrest us all, they can. But our wives and children will continue the struggle,” admits Abdullah Abu Rahmah. On April 19, 2009, Bassem Abu Rahmah, a peaceful demonstrator, was shot in the chest with a tear gas bomb during one of Bil’in’s nonviolent, Friday protests. Thus, if neither the murder of Abu Rahmah, Abdullah’s extended family member, nor the 1,300 injuries and 60 arrests endured by activists has broken their spirits, virtually nothing can affect them now. As Mahatma Mohandas Gandhi pursued satyagraha—nonviolence—in his quest for Indian independence, the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall too employs this philosophy in the pursuit of achieving Palestinian sovereignty and absolute freedom from Israeli occupation.

The picture is clear: concessions to Israeli “democratic” values and security modus operandi deprive Palestinians of their inalienable human rights. Our common humanity generates a moral duty to uphold the United Nations’ explicit benchmark for an occupying power’s conduct in its occupied territories. Despite big brother’s backing in the Security Council, Israel is not absolved of its responsibilities under the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War—the Separation Wall and settlement activity in the West Bank indeed constitute war crimes. The international community needs to stop playing big-power politics and start dodging the aura of taboo accompanying espousal of the Palestinian plight—accountability is a must and exoneration, pure blasphemy.

‘Israeli ad makes light of separation barrier’

Robert Mackey| New York Times News Blog

14 July 2009

According to Noam Sheizaf, who writes the blog Promised Land from Tel Aviv, “the Israeli blogosphere is boiling” this week with discussion of this new television commercial for Israel’s largest cellphone company, Cellcom, which seems to make the “good fences make good neighbors” argument in favor of the controversial separation barrier being built in and around the West Bank:

In Mr. Sheizaf’s first post on the ad, which depicts Israeli soldiers and unseen Palestinians playing a game with a soccer ball across the barrier, he explained the Hebrew tag line and added his own interpretation of its deeper meaning:

The voice-over in the end goes: “What do we all want? Some fun, that’s all.” And what’s more fun than not seeing the Palestinians around anymore, thanks to the 10 meters high wall?

Mr. Sheizaf, writing that the ad “breaks some records in bad taste, even by Israeli standards,” also pointed to this comment from another Israeli blogger, Dimi Reider, who argued that this kind of fiction matters:

Ads aimed at the general market, like this one, are invaluable time capsules, representing public mood much more faithfully than any art. They can’t afford to affront and lose a single customer – and thus they document not just what a society really is, but what it really thinks itself to be, which can be just as decisive as facts and figures.

Mr. Reider also suggested that “this one minute ad says a lot about how mainstream Israel likes to see itself and the Palestinians,” noting, for instance:

The invisible, too-terrible-to-show-on-prime-time Palestinians, are perfectly happy to play with the people who locked them up (note how the wall bends, creating the impression of a tiny pen instead of a gargantuan project choking up an entire country). We so much so believe they should be happy to play with us that when they don’t return the ball (their ball), we are in every right to indignantly shout, “Nu?!” (”Well?!”)

Reuters reported on Sunday that “Ahmed Tibi, an Arab member of Israel’s Parliament, said he had written to Cellcom demanding it pull the ad.” Mr. Tibi told the news agency: “The advertisement presents the barrier as though it were just a garden fence in Tel Aviv.”

Taking a different view, a blogger at the American Web site Jewlicious calls the ad “cute,” while a reader of that Web site made a convincing case that this effort runs a poor second to this one, for the Israeli satellite company Yes, in the “Most Offensive Israeli Ad Ever” sweepstakes.

On another American blog, Mondoweiss, Adam Horowitz argues that video shot last Friday, documenting a protest against the barrier by Palestinians near the West Bank village of Nilin, shows “how this encounter usually plays out in reality.” This video, produced by the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement — shot by two Israeli activists and a foreign volunteer — shows Palestinians who had cut a section of the barrier in protest being arrested by Israeli security forces:

In an interview with The Lede, one of the three people who shot this video, Sarit Michaeli, who works for the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, explained that she was allowed to shoot this video of one of the arrests being made just a few feet in front of her because she informed the security forces, in Hebrew, of her identity.

The second Israeli cameraman to document the clash at the barrier last Friday, an artist named David Reeb, posted more of his video in this edit on his YouTube channel:

Mr. Reeb’s video focuses on another aspect of Israeli-Palestinian relations near the separation barrier — the fact that two members of the Israeli security forces initially took part in the demonstration disguised as protesters.

Protests against the construction of the barrier in Nilin have been going on every Friday for about a year, as my colleague Isabel Kershner reported from the West Bank in March.

At one of those protests an American volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement, Tristan Anderson, from Oakland, Calif., was badly wounded when he was hit in the head by a tear-gas canister fired by an Israeli soldier. The activist group posted this graphic, disturbing video of Mr. Anderson being attended to by medics immediately after being hit during what it said had been “a peaceful demonstration.” As my colleague Ethan Bronner reported in March, a spokeswoman for the Israeli military took issue with that characterization of the protest:

The army spokeswoman said there were about 400 violent demonstrators at the village of Nilin, west of Ramallah, many of them throwing rocks at the troops. The forces shot back, she said, but not with live fire.

Still, no matter who you think is responsible for the violent clashes near the separation barrier in Nilin, the complex reality there, when Israelis and Palestinians actually meet, is very different from the simple fiction Cellcom is selling.

West Bank fence not done and never will be, it seems

Amos Harel | Ha’aretz

14 July 2009

Seven years after construction work began on the West Bank separation fence, the project seems to have run aground. Work has slowed significantly since September 2007, and today, after the state has spent about NIS 9.5 billion, only about 60 percent of the more limited, revised route has been completed.

With fierce opposition coming from the United States, Israel has halted work on the “fingers” – enclaves east of the Green Line that were to have included large settlement blocs such as Ariel, Kedumim, Karnei Shomron and Ma’aleh Adumim, within the fence. The military has, in practice, closed up the holes that were to have led to these “fingers.” But giant gaps remain in the southern part of the fence, particular in the southern outskirts of Jerusalem, in the Etzion bloc and in the Judean Desert.

Since the cabinet under former prime minister Ariel Sharon first approved construction of the fence, in June 2002, the route has undergone some dramatic changes. The original route, which was inspired by Sharon, was to have effectively annexed about 20 percent of the territory of the West Bank to Israel.

In June 2004 the High Court of Justice, ruling on a petition by residents of Beit Sourik, ordered the state to amend the route to reduce the disruption it caused to Palestinians.

About nine days later the International Court of Justice in The Hague issued an advisory opinion declaring the barrier illegal and demanding that Israel dismantle it.

In response, the cabinet amended the route in February 2005 to include just nine percent of the West Bank. In April 2006 an additional one percent was shaved off by the government of Ehud Olmert.

In practice, however, the route encompasses only 4.5 percent of West Bank land. The four “fingers” in the last map (and which Israel presented at Annapolis in November 2007) were never built, not at Ariel and Kedumim (where a “fingernail” was built, a short stretch of fence east of the homes of Ariel); not at Karnei Shomron and Immanuel; not at Beit Arieh, nor south of that, at Ma’aleh Adumim. Instead, with little publicity, fences were put up to close the gaps closer to the Green Line, at Alfei Menashe instead of at Kedumim, at Elkana instead of Ariel and in the Rantis area instead of at Beit Arieh.

About 50,000 people in these settlements remain beyond the fence. West of Ma’aleh Adumim the wall built along Highway 1 blocks the gap in the barrier and leaves the city’s 35,000 residents outside of the barrier, forcing them to pass through a Border Police checkpoint in order to reach Jerusalem. The fact that the “fingers” were never built also damages these people’s security because the state refuses to build periphery fences around them and declare their proximity to a “special military area.”

In some cases, such as the roads built around the original barrier route at the Beit Arieh enclave, hundreds of millions of shekels were wasted on unused roads that may never be completed.

Large gaps remain in the southern West Bank. Between Gilo in south Jerusalem and Gush Etzion are tens of kilometers of barrier, work on which was suspended due to two High Court petitions – one filed by residents of Beit Jala, the other by villagers from Batir, Husan and Nahalin. As a result access to Jerusalem from the direction of Bethlehem is relatively easy – for commuters and terrorists both.

In the case of the former petition, the state has delayed submitting its response for months. In the second, the High Court has still not ruled after about two and a half years. Part of the dispute is over the construction of the eastern barrier, one of two surrounding Gush Etzion. The bloc, which even the Palestinians will presumably agree to keeping – at least part of it – within Israeli territory in the final-status agreement, has been without a barrier for seven years.

A second, 30-kilometer gap in the fence, stretches from Metzudat Yehuda (Yatir) in the west to the Dead Sea in the east. The state announced during a recent High Court deliberation of a petition submitted by area Bedouin that work on the barrier there was suspended.

The delay in building the barrier at Ma’aleh Adumim is typical and illuminates the state’s conduct overall. The High Court has intermittently deliberated on a petition by resident of Sawahra against the route of the fence at Kedar that was to have been built on their land. Work was suspended, and the state recently submitted a new map that annexes less of the territory, but at the last High Court session, earlier this month, the representative of the state said the work would not be resumed “for budgetary and other reasons.”

Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch suspended the court’s ruling, in light of the state’s response, saying she had no intention of “dealing with virtual matters.” That description seems apt for the entire separation fence, at this point.

The Brodet Commission, which in 2007 examined the state’s military budget, included in its report scathing criticism of the way the budget for the separation barrier was handled.

“The conduct regarding construction of the fence is another example of wasteful, inadequate conduct. The committee was not persuaded that the process was carried out with due, detailed consideration that took in all of the economic and security considerations. The commission saw no analysis of cost-effectiveness or a thorough examination. The army viewed itself as a subcontractor,” the report said.

IDF Colonel (res.) Shaul Arieli, who has studied the fence issue extensively on behalf of the Council for Peace and Security, told Haaretz in response: “The desire to include more territory within the confines of the fence than is practically possible has resulted in a situation where the settlement blocs are left outside of the fence while other blocs remain vulnerable and do not receive protection. In addition, exorbitant sums of money have been pumped into infrastructure and fences that were supposed to follow a route that was impossible to complete.”

Defense Minister Ehud Barak is “determined to complete the security fence, despite the delays,” his office said in a statement. “The minister and the military establishment are working to solve the problems delaying its completion.”

Defense Ministry officials pointed out that Barak was “among the first supporters of the fence and did much to advance its construction.”

Security officials claim the rate of construction depends on finding a solution to the legal issues and point out proudly that there is an unbroken barrier from Tirat Zvi in the Beit She’an Valley to the southern entrance to Jerusalem, and from southern Gush Etzion to Metzudat Yehuda.

Campaign to release Palestinian activist arrested in Bil’in

14 July 2009

Adeeb Abu Rahme, a leading Palestinian non-violent peace activist was arrested in the weekly Bil’in demonstration against the Apartheid Wall (see the video, Adeeb is the protester in the orange shirt with the mega-phone). The Israeli military is charging Adeeb with “incitement to violence,” a charge that could bring a serious jail term. This charge is the culmination of a new attempt to “break” the non-violent resistance in Palestine by targeting the leaders of the non-violent protests.

Adeeb is currently in detention and will be taken in front of a military judge on Thursday, 16 July 2009. The military prosecutor intends to request for Adeeb to remain in detention until the end of the proceedings against him. This could mean months or a year in military prison for Adeeb, who is the sole provider for his family of 9 children, wife and mother.

Adeeb Abu Rahme at a Bil'in demonstration — Adeeb Abu Rahme (in grey) at a Bil'in demonstration

In the past five years, many attempts have been made by the to break the spirit of the Bil’in protests. Every new commander in Bil’in has promised to break the resistance, using new weapons and increasing the level of violence against unarmed demonstrators. But the spirit and resilience of Bil’in residents and their supporters cannot be broken; every Friday they continue to march and chant against the theft of Palestinian land and the systemic violence of the Occupation.

In the past month, Israeli forces have attacked Bil’in and other villages with renewed vigor, raiding homes in the early hours of the morning to seize suspected demonstrators. Mostly children under the age of 18, they are interrogated and pressured to ‘confess’ that they throw stones at the instructions of the village leaders. The truth remains that village leaders discourage stone throwing and recognize that it is used as a tool by the Occupation to falsely accuse the demonstrations of instigating violence. The Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements requested the presence of Israeli and international solidarity activists to document and discourage the night raids.

Anyone of the thousands who have marched with Adeeb can testify that despite provocation and serious attacks on his person, he has never responded violently. 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. We need you now to testify to Adeeb’s commitment to non-violence and to hold the Israeli military accountable for trying to destroy the resistance.

Please email your letter to palestinesolidarity@gmail.com

SAMPLE LETTER:

To whom it may concern,

I was disturbed to learn that Mr. Adeeb Abu Rahme, a leader in his village and participant in the non-violent demonstrations that take place in Bil’in every Friday, was arrested for peacefully demonstrating against Israel’s separation fence on July 10th, 2009 and is still being held in prison. Over the past five years Mr. Rahme and the leaders in Bil’in village have displayed an unshakable commitment to non-violence and dignified action.

Mr. Rahme in particular is well known for his commitment to the struggle for peace through non-violent means and for his willingness to work in partnership with Israelis. He is a respected member of the community. I am impressed with his honesty and commitment to non-violence. My understanding of Israeli law is that the right to demonstrate peacefully is protected. Mr. Rahme should be commended and not punished for his efforts.

I hope and trust that Mr. Rahme will be allowed to return to his family, including his 9 children, wife and mother for whom he is the sole supporter, and community without further delay and that his name be cleared of all accusations.

Sincerely,