Tag: Apartheid Wall

Mohammed Khawaje, shot by Israeli forces in Ni’lin while demonstrating in solidarity with Gaza, has died

A Palestinian man, who was left brain-dead on the 28th December after being shot in the head with live ammunition by Israeli forces in the village of Ni’lin, died this evening.

Israeli forces shot 20 year old Mohammed Khawaje in the forehead with live ammunition as he was demonstrating in the village of Ni’lin against the Israeli massacres in Gaza. He was pronounced brain-dead on the evening of the 31st December.

Arafat Khawaje, 22, was shot in the back and killed by Israeli soldiers at the same demonstration on the 28th December.

17-year-old Muhammad Hamid was also killed on the 28th December as he protested close to an Israeli watchtower. He was transferred to Ramallah Hospital where medics announced he had sustained three gunshot wounds in his abdomen and chest. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.

ISM volunteers based in the village of Ni’lin witnessed the shootings by Israeli soldiers.

Sara Weinberg, a resident of Chicago, said, “The internationals that live in the village went out in solidarity with Ni’lin residents to demonstrate against the massacre on Gaza. I was standing about 15 meters from the boys, when we heard the sound of live ammunition. I heard screams and saw that 3 had been shot. One man was shot in the leg, another in the head right above the eyebrow and a third was shot in the back. Men carried all three, the one shot in the head was bleeding profusely. The one that was shot in the back was unconscious. We ran down to the street from the olive fields and the soldiers would not stop shooting tear gas at us. It took the soldiers at least 5 minutes to let the ambulance through the checkpoint at the entrance to the village.”

Ibrahim Amira, member of the Popular Committee in Ni’lin said;

“The Occupation is going to turn Ni’lin into a ghetto as it has turned Gaza into a ghetto. And the same way that a massacre is taking place in Gaza against those resisting the siege, a massacre is now taking place in Ni’lin against those resisting the Aparthied Wall”

Two other young men are currently in critical conditions after having been shot in the head by Israeli forces while demonstrating in solidarity with Gaza.

18 year old Hammam Al-Ashari, from Abu Dis, was shot three times in the head with rubber-coated steel bullets on the 29th December. He is now in critical condition in Muqassad Hospital, Jerusalem. Muhammad Jaber, 17 years old, was shot in the head near the Ibrahim Mosque on the 28th December, Hebron, with live ammunition. His condition is also classified as critical.

Israeli forces kill resident of Ni’lin and leave another in critical condition during demonstration of solidarity with Gaza

Israeli forces have killed one Palestinian man from Ni’lin, while another is in critical condition, as they opened fire on a demonstration against the Israeli massacre of the people of Gaza.

Arafat Rateb Khawaje, 22 years old, was shot in the back with live ammunition, he died at 2:45pm in Ramallah Hospital.

Mohammed Kasim Khawaje, 20 years old, was shot in the forehead with live ammunition from close range. He remains in critical condition in Ramallah hospital.

Mohammed Sror was shot in the leg with live ammunition, but his injuries are not critical.

Sara Weinberg, a resident of Chicago, said, “The internationals that live in the village went out in solidarity with Ni’lin residents to demonstrate against the massacre on Gaza. I was standing about 15 meters from the boys, when we heard the sound of live ammunition. I heard screams and saw that 3 had been shot. One man was shot in the leg, another in the head right above the eyebrow and a third was shot in the back. Men carried all three, the one shot in the head was bleeding profusely. The one that was shot in the back was unconscious. We ran down to the street from the olive fields and the soldiers would not stop shooting tear gas at us. It took the soldiers at least 5 minutes to let the ambulance through the checkpoint at the entrance to the village.”

Israeli activist Jonathan Polack said that;

“Fifteen Palestinian youths were protesting when five soldiers, who were 15 metres away opened fire with live ammunition straight at the group of protesters. They shot one protester in the back, one in the forehead and one in the leg”

Ibrahim Amira, member of the Popular Committee in Ni’lin said;

“The Occupation is going to turn Ni’lin into a ghetto as it has turned Gaza into a ghetto. And the same way that a massacre is taking place in Gaza against those resisting the siege, a massacre is now taking place in Ni’lin against those resisting the Aparthied Wall”

Arafat Khawaje is now the third resident of Ni’lin to be killed by Israeli soldiers during demonstrations against the construction of the Apartheid Wall on Nil’in’s land.

On the 29th July 2008, ten year old Ahmed Mousa was shot through the forehead with live ammunition, killing him instantly. The following day Yousef Amira was shot twice from close range with rubber-coated steel bullets leaving him brain-dead. He died a week later on 4th August 2008.

Lina Escobar, a Spanish citizen who witnessed the attack, stated;

“By agreeing to upgrade relations with Israel the European Union is rewarding Israel for it’s policies of mass murder in Lebanon and Palestine. It makes it complicit in the murder of the youth of Ni’lin for protesting their village being turned into a prison by the Apartheid Wall”

For more information and for photos of those killed and injured please contact:

Adam Taylor – ISM Media Office – +972 598 503948 or email palreports@gmail.com

Ni’lin holds two consecutive demonstrations against the Apartheid Wall

December 26, 2008

On Friday 26th December, around 250 protesters turned out for the Friday prayer demonstration against the Apartheid wall in Ni´lin. There was a large international and Israeli presence there in solidarity with the Palestinians.

The prayer started around noon followed by a march towards the construction site. The protesters were met by a barrage of tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets from the Israeli army who were waiting for the demonstration. The scattered the protesters who were split into two main groups, one who remained in the field and the other who moved to the checkpoint at the entrance of the town.

Many people suffered from tear gas inhalation with many also hit by rubber-coated steel bullets. There was a highly increased amount of teargas fired, most of which were aimed directly at the bodies of the protesters. Since mid-November the army also has been using an extension which can fire multiple round plastic covered steel bullets. Luckily no one was severely injured.

The demonstration continued until five o´clock.

The townspeople have been protesting on a regular basis since May 2008 against the construction of the Apartheid wall, which will annex another 40% of Ni’lin’s land accumulating a loss of around 85% of its land since 1948. Two children have been killed and hundreds of others have been injured by teargas, sound grenades and rubber coated steel bullets. 31 people are currently imprisoned, six of them are children, and many of them without legitimate charges.

Ni’lin – Thursday 25th of December

About 40 protesters vigilantly march down to the road to the construction site of the wall in monsoon like rain. After about 15 minutes soldiers arrived and started to shoot tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets. The army came close to the town and shot tear gas at the nearby houses.

The demonstration started around noon and ended at three o´clock. Two people were hit by rubber coated steel bullet, one of them in the head who required two stitches. Many others where asphyxiated by tear gas.

Three residents of Ni’lin arrested during night invasion

December 22, 2008

At 2.30 am on the 22nd of December, more than 100 soldiers invaded the village of Ni’lin, abducting three people in their homes. A fourth person they were looking for was not captured. The three arrested were:

Saeed Ibrahim Mustafa Amireh, 17

Mohammed Daoud Husain Khawaja, 17

Mohammed Abdallah Yousef Amireh, 32

At the house of Saeed Amireh the soldiers came by foot and surrounded the house. Approximately 25 soldiers entered the home searching for evidence to connect the family to participation in the resistance against the construction of the wall, yet they found nothing. During the raid the Israeli army put the whole family of ten in one room. After harassing the family for an hour and a half, Saeed was arrested and taken to Ofer prison.

One of the soldiers said in Arabic to Saeed’s father Ibrahim Amireh, “we arrested you two months ago, now we are here to take your son”. Saeed’s father, who is a member of the Popular Committee of Ni’lin, was arrested on the 14th of August also during a night invasion of Israeli soldiers in the village. He was imprisoned and daily interrogated during 16 days and then released. This resulted in him losing his permit to work in Israel.

At 2.30 the army came to the house of Mohammed Khawaja, 17 years old. First they went to his brother’s home downstairs, where they entered and searched the house. They did not find Mohammed so they went upstairs and arrested him immediately. One soldier searched the house looking for evidence in connection with the popular resistance. As it was a swift arrest the parents didn’t have a chance to give him extra clothes, Mohammed has also been taken to Ofer Prisoner Camp, near Ramallah.

At around 3am, 20 soldiers came to Mohammed Abdallah Yousef Amirehs house and called him out, before then arresting him. They also entered his mother’s house downstairs harassing her and searching her house. They took him by foot to the checkpoint from were he was taken to Ofer Prisoner Camp. He is the father of five small children. Without him his family have no income.

During the arrests two jeeps were parked outside the municipality in the village centre. Around ten soldiers stood shooting teargas and sound bombs towards the surrounding houses. They used flares to see if there were any people outside. The army finally left the village at around 5am.

Israeli forces invade Ni’lin regularly in order to arrest people who have been active in the popular resistance against the Annexation Wall being built on their lands. Since the start of the construction of the Annexation Wall in April 2008, more than 60 villagers have been arrested. Out of the 60 held 31 are still in jail, six of them under the age of 18.

The wall annexes 23 hectares of agricultural land from the village. In addition to the wall, two tunnels that are planned that will act as the only entrances in and out of Ni’lin will annex a further 2 hectares.

432 hectares of farming land have already been annexed by the Israeli state since 1948 leaving Ni’lin with only 23 hectares of land that includes the land the village houses are build on.

When the Annexation Wall is finished it will completely encircle the village together with two roads that can only be used by Israelis. The construction turns Ni’lin into a small enclave closed off from the rest of the West Bank.

Excluding Saeed and Mohammed, 4 other children have been imprisoned and so far, they have been held for more than a month. They are:

Ibrahim Khalqel, 16

Majed Hisham Nafea, 17

Sufyan Khawaja, 17

Mohammad Ata Mousa, 14 – On Wednesday 17th December Mohammed Mousa was sentenced to four months and fined 2000 NIS (starting from the day he was arrested).

These children have had their education interrupted and they risk losing a school term. Saeed and Mohammad have been arrested just one week before their final exams of the semester. This is another strategy from Israel to make the daily life increasingly difficult for the Palestinian population, particularly those involved in popular resistance against the occupation.

These latest arrests mark a continuation of the Israeli policy of arrests of those believed to be involved in demonstrations against the Wall.

Ni’lin hold shoe demonstration against the occupation

19th December 2008

At noon on Friday 19th December, around 150 protesters from the village of Ni’lin, joined by international and Israeli solidarity activists, gathered in the village to protest against the construction of the Apartheid Wall being built on Ni’lin’s land.

This demonstration took the form of a prayer protest on land close to the construction of the Wall. The demonstrators then tried to reach the construction site in order to physically stop the construction where they held up shoes on sticks towards the Israeli forces, following the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at US President George Bush.

Protesters then assembled road-blocks leading to the construction site in order to delay the building of the Apartheid Wall.

Even though international and Israeli activists where present, live ammunition was fired by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF).

During the demonstration the Israeli soldiers damaged several buildings in the village. Two of the buildings had windows broken, one of them had four tear-gas cannisters shot though a window. A third house had a water pipe and its solar cells destroyed by the soldiers firing at the property.

A lot of teargas was fired in the demonstration and the violence from the soldiers resulted in ten injuries. Seven people were injured due to rubber-coated steel bullets and three from gas inhalation.

Two members of the press were injured, one of them was shot two times in his knee by rubber-coated steel bullets, despite clearly wearing a vest with “PRESS” written on it.

The other man was a TV reporter who fainted from tear-gas inhalation. When medicals tried to help him they also where targeted with tear-gas which resulted in one of ambulance personnel losing consciousness. Israeli forces were also witnessed targeting the ambulance that was hit with several rounds of tear-gas causing damage to the vehicle.