Tag: Apartheid Wall - Page 93 - International Solidarity Movement

Demonstration against the Apartheid Wall in Ni’lin

15th January 2009

After the women and children demonstration the protest against the Wall continued. The demonstration was attacked with teargas and sound bombs. The soldiers entered the village and kidnapped and brutally beat an international man who was later released.

The demonstrators were halted before they reached the olive fields on the outskirts of the town. Around 50 Palestinians, International and Israeli activists were fired upon with teargas including the new teargas. The army was so close that the teargas was falling into the centre of town. Many people suffered from teargas inhalation and two people were hit with the canisters requiring medical treatment.

This continued until after a large barrage of teargas and sound bombs the army entered the town from the olive fields. The army on foot ran down the streets pointing their rifles around corners and into doorways and shooting teargas down the streets.

An International activist was left stranded when the army fired a concentration of teargas and sound bombs as they made a rapid approach into the village causing the demonstrators to flee back to the town centre. The activist had stayed behind a house when he was suffering from teargas inhalation and when the army advanced he was trapped behind them. A following group of soldiers to the ones who entered the town found the activist who immediately put his hands up. The army responded by beating him with their rifle buts along with kicking and hitting him as they led him into the olive fields using a dirt road. Along with beating the activist they also stuck the firing end of their rifle into his neck and pushed him up against a wall. After kidnapping the international activist the soldiers withdrew form the town and when they were leaving though the olive fields they released the international hostage.

I was here when they murdered Arafat and Mohamed, the way the army were acting when they came into the town made me think they were going to do something similar. I was afraid for my life when they would find me and I feel if I was Palestinian they would have just shot me.

Israeli snipers using new ammunition in Ni’lin

On Friday the 9th of January at 11.30am the weekly prayer demonstration was carried out in Ni’lin. Approximately 100 citizens of Ni’lin together with international and Israeli human right activists took part in the demonstration. During the demonstration the Israeli army used snipers to shoot the new ‘0.22’ caliber bullet, injuring two people.

The army was already present at three different spots close to the clinic long before the prayer had started. After the prayer the demonstrators marched from the clinic towards the construction site of the Apartheid Wall. Even before the demonstrators entered the olive fields the army shot both the old type of tear gas canister and the new type which is much heavier and explodes on impact making it impossible to see. They also shot rubber-coated steel bullets. The demonstration was held back with much tear gas and so remained at the site of the clinic throughout the whole demonstration. There were many more soldiers and border police than usual.

The army was more dispersed and came very close to the clinic. They had snipers using 0.22 calibre bullets as well as border police firing the new type of gas canister from close range. Three people were shot with the 0.22 calibre, one international was hit in the foot, another broke a lower leg bone and the other was shot through the outer thigh. Two were taken to Sheikh Zaid hospital in Ramallah, neither injury was severe, and both men returned to their homes that evening. Another was shot in the hand by the new gas canister and 8 more were hit by rubber coated steel bullets. Many others suffered asphyxiation by tear gas. The teargas was also fired far into the village away from any demonstrators effecting people in their homes. Firing teargas far into the village risks hitting people in the streets, entering homes and increasing the chance of children being injured.

The protest ended at sunset around 5.00 pm. The people of Ni’lin have been demonstrating against the illegal Apartheid Wall since May 2008.

The Gazan Holocaust: Bil’in demonstrates in solidarity with Gaza

As a gesture of solidarity, residents in the West Bank village of Bil’in demonstrated against the current holocaust on Gaza in outfits symbolic of the clothing worn by victims of the Nazi holocaust.

The Israeli army used several new weapons, one of which is a bullet filled with an unknown chemical substance, against the demonstrators. Five individuals, including a member of Bil’in’s popular committee, were arrested and later released.

“Stop the holocaust,” chanted the residents of Bil’in during today’s protest, held in solidarity with the Gazan people. After the Friday prayer, Palestinian, international and Israeli activists gathered to voice their opposition to the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza.

Wearing clothing similar to prisoners in Nazi camps, protestors traded the Star of David badge for a Gaza Strip badge.

“The outfits and insignia are a visual remembrance to the parallel conditions of the Jewish holocaust and the Gazan holocaust. Indiscriminate killing of members belonging to an ethnic group that was put and is trapped in a ghetto: Gaza is the present day concentration camp,” stated Abdallah Abu Rahmah, a member of Bil’in’s popular committee. Protesters hoped to send a message to the world: the international community is ignoring another holocaust.

Israel uses the 'scream' weapon on Bil'in demonstration in solidarity with Gaza

The demonstrators marched through the streets of the village, towards the Apartheid Wall. An effort to condemn Israeli war crimes against the population of Gaza was met with tear gas, new bullets containing an unknown chemical substance and new bullets termed “0.2”, from Israeli soldiers. The new bullets that contain an unknown chemical substance are round and green and explode upon impact. Several protesters were injured including Muhammad Nabil Abu Rahmeh who had to be taken to Ramallah Hospital for treatment after he was shot at with the new 0.2 bullet. The small bullet went through his leg, causing great damage to muscle. Also injured by rubber bullets were a photographer from Al Jazeera International, Yase Ashal Mahmud Yasen and a child named Nashmi Aburahma.

Soldiers also entered through a road gate into Bil’in and arrested Muhammed Khatib, a member of Bil’in’s Popular Committee, Ashraf Abu Rahma, Samer Ataya and two Israeli activists. They were released later in the day.

The ongoing siege on Gaza, illegal under international law, was intensified when Israeli occupation forces began attacking Gaza with air strikes, shelling from the navy and a ground invasion. The military incursion on Gaza has already led to the death of over 781 people and injury of another 3,300.

Israel continues to indiscriminately attack on the densely populated Gaza Strip: a 40km by 7km remnant of historical Palestine with 1.5 million residents. Even Israeli officials are drawing comparisons to the Nazi inflicted holocaust.

Speaking to Israeli army radio, the Deputy Defense Minister, Matan Vilnai said, “the more Qassam [rocket] fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, [the Palestinians] will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah because we will use all our might to defend ourselves.” Shoah is the Hebrew term for the Jewish holocaust.

Today’s action was a reminder to the international world about the consequences of letting Gazan massacres go unnoticed. As proven by a history that was constructed because of willful ignorance during the Nazi inflicted holocaust, ignoring the Israeli inflicted holocaust on the Palestinians of Gaza is not an option.

“The soldiers occupy our house every day there is a demonstration at the checkpoint of the village”

6th January 2009, Ni’lin village

The Ameera family suffers the occupation of their house every time there are demonstrations at the main road of Ni’lin. Soldiers usually come in the morning and do not allow the family to go out from their house until they leave. There are normally four or five soldiers that stay constantly at the back of the house in the Ameera’s garden. Another group is at the main entrance and the rest, normally around ten soldiers, stay on the roof. The soldiers use the Ameera’s roof to shoot tear gas, sound bombs and rubber coated-steel bullets against the villagers that are protesting in the street. The location is strategic because they can easily aim the people in the street. “When they leave we have to clean all the empty boxes and the rubbish from the food and also army stuff that they leave on our roof”.

There are three families living in the building and all of them are told to be inside until the soldiers decide to leave. The mother, who suffers from anxiety and stress since the soldiers have started coming and occupying her house, says:

“Some times they take the chairs from the hall and put them outside to sit and rest in our garden while we are not allow to go outside” the mother said. “The soldiers speak Arabic with us, they are Druze. One day one of them spat on my face”.

“At the beginning I was afraid of them, now I’ve got used to it but my youngest daughter hides in the bathroom every time she sees them coming”.

Once again, the consequences of the occupation are affecting all inhabitants of this small village of no more than 4,500 people. The Ameera family are facing more occupations of their house. They are also losing their land because of the Apartheid wall Israel is building.

Fourth youth killed by Israeli army in West Bank

Mofid Saleh Walwil, a 20 year old resident of Qalqiliya, was killed by Israeli forces at approximately 1pm on Sunday 4th December, making him the fourth Palestinian to be killed by the Israeli army in the West Bank in the past week.

Mofid was assassinated close to the Apartheid Wall that surrounds the city, as a group of youth were throwing stones at a settler-only road that runs along the route of the illegal Wall, in response to the Israeli ground invasion of the Gaza Strip. Residents of the city report that an Israeli jeep arrived on the scene, and, with a single sniper bullet, shot Mofid in the forehead, killing him instantly. None of the other Palestinian youth were injured.

Approximately 1000 mourners filled the streets of Qalqiliya city, carrying Mofid’s lifeless body through the city, chanting their support for Mofid and for Gaza.

“With our souls and our blood, we stand with Mofid,
With our souls and our blood, we stand with Gaza,
With our souls and our blood, we stand with Al Quds.”

Since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza, four Palestinian youths have been killed by Israeli armed forces in the occupied West Bank. Two youths, Arafat Al Khawaje and Mohammad Al Khawaje, were killed in the village of Ni’lin, near Ramallah; another, 17 year old Mohammad Hamid, was killed in the village of Silwad, to the north-west of Ramallah.

These killings put paid to the claim oft-made by the Israeli government that Hamas is the reason they have launched a war on Gaza – that they have no need to kill civilians in the West Bank because of the governance of the Palestinian Authority there. Rather, these murders reveal that the true targets of Israeli policy are the Palestinian people, civilians and fighters alike, regardless of political affiliation.