The 124th consecutive Friday demonstration in Bil'in had no innovation. Palestinians, internationals and Israeli from the anarchists against the fence initiative, marched at noon towards the gate of the separation fence used to rob more than half the lands of the village. As usual last weeks, the Israeli state forces took position half the way up the hill the gate to the west of the fence is located. When we approached the foot of the hill the commander declared the area as closed military zone. A spool of barbed wire crossing the road near the foot of the hill marked the forbidden zone. The commander threatened to attack any one crossing that mark. The head of the demonstration converged near the spool of the barbed wire and told the state force our opinion about them.
After few minutes few comrades started to cross the demarcation line. In response, the state force showered us with tear gas and arrested two members of the Bil'in village popular comity for nonviolent struggle against the separation fence. At that point the village youth started the fight of stones against grenades (shock and tear gas) and rubber coated bullets.
The commander of the state force sent teams to confront the stone throwers and demonstrators who remained in the area, who even entered the outskirts of the village.
When we were on our way to Tel Aviv we heard that one arrestee was released, while the second one falsely accused as stone thrower was taken to the near by concentration camp Ofer.
-------------- South of Bethlehem ----------
In south of Bethlehem region there was an action at Wady Nis. People from the region, internationals and Israelis of the AATW initiative converged at the route of the separation fence in building. Speeches were carried and one of them gave support and honer to an international volunteer who was arrested for participation in the struggle in the region. After the speeches participants planted trees on the route of the separation fence to replace these which were uprooted to clear the route for the fence.
Two participants were detained and released only after the action ended.
Friday, June 22, 2007
Friday, June 15, 2007
Palestine-Israel, The joint struggle against occupation and the separation fence Friday 15th June
It was the 123th Friday demonstration against the separation fence in Bil'in - see previous weekly reports. As usual, Palestinians, internationals and Israelis of anarchists against the wall initiative marched marched from the center of the village on the road leading to the route of the separation fence used to rob more than half the lands of the village. As usual the last two months, when we approached the hill the gate in the separation fence is at its top, the state forces intercepted us at the foot of the hill. This time, when we arrived there, we heard the orders and threats of the state force forbidding us crossing a barbed wire spool lied on the road. This time they shoot only two tear gas canister as a treat, but let us converge near the road block. We stayed there for about 10 minutes while a comrade gave a speech directed to the state force. Then we started to cross the forbidden line and got in response lot of tear gas. When few of us reached the state force half way up the hill, they detained two of the Israelis (who were set free at the end of the demo) and dispersed the rest of us.
Like previous demonstrations we tried to converge after driven away by the shower of tear gas and approach the route of the separation fence again and from other directions... but the shower of tear gas canisters was too intense and the wind was on their side...So, after an hour and a half we left the battle field to the stone throwers who started to do their thing after the nonviolent demonstrators dispersed. In response the state forces added to the tear gas shooting with rubber coated bullets that injured few of the stone throwers.
See http://awalls.org
Like previous demonstrations we tried to converge after driven away by the shower of tear gas and approach the route of the separation fence again and from other directions... but the shower of tear gas canisters was too intense and the wind was on their side...So, after an hour and a half we left the battle field to the stone throwers who started to do their thing after the nonviolent demonstrators dispersed. In response the state forces added to the tear gas shooting with rubber coated bullets that injured few of the stone throwers.
See http://awalls.org
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Palestine-Israe the joint struggle against apartheid - Roadblocks Removed in Al Jaba and Beit Einun 13 Jun 2007
The Palestine Solidarity Project organized three consecutive actions together with the Anarchists Against the Wall and the Popular Committee of Hebron. The first action: removing a roadblock in Al Jab'a. PSP, together with other various groups, removed this particular roadblock four times. It blocks the movement of a main road connecting Al Jab'a and Surif, turning a trip that used to take five minutes into one hour. Palestinians must use different roads to bypass' the Gush Etzion settlement bloc and other Palestinian villages. About 50 people worked together with ropes, sticks, and shovels to remove the three cement blocks. Through much effort and hard work, they succeeded in the removal after half an hour, well knowing that an Israeli bulldozer can easily replace the roadblock in five minutes. When roadblocks are replaced, the IOF utilizes soldiers, guns, jeeps, and heavy machinery.
After the first success, the group moved on to Beit Einun to remove a roadblock preventing movement on a heavily-used road between Hebron and Sa'ir. The IOF had blocked the road four years ago. This was the first action of this sort in this area. While a group of about 100 people began to remove the roadblock, ten jeeps arrived and waited nearby. The second roadblock was successfully removed. The group piled into their cars and drove further down the road to remove the next planned roadblock. The Jeeps followed them and suddenly created a line across the road, trapping the group between them and the next roadblock. The group decided not to remove the next roadblock because the group wanted to prevent possible arrests. They then waited two hours for the IOF to leave. Finally, two disassociated Palestinian cars appeared and needed to pass through. The jeeps parted, allowing the cars to pass as well as the other cars carrying the PSP members, the Anarchists, and the Popular Committee of Hebron.
See also: link to Uri Gordon article in daily Jerusaem post http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1181570256861&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
After the first success, the group moved on to Beit Einun to remove a roadblock preventing movement on a heavily-used road between Hebron and Sa'ir. The IOF had blocked the road four years ago. This was the first action of this sort in this area. While a group of about 100 people began to remove the roadblock, ten jeeps arrived and waited nearby. The second roadblock was successfully removed. The group piled into their cars and drove further down the road to remove the next planned roadblock. The Jeeps followed them and suddenly created a line across the road, trapping the group between them and the next roadblock. The group decided not to remove the next roadblock because the group wanted to prevent possible arrests. They then waited two hours for the IOF to leave. Finally, two disassociated Palestinian cars appeared and needed to pass through. The jeeps parted, allowing the cars to pass as well as the other cars carrying the PSP members, the Anarchists, and the Popular Committee of Hebron.
See also: link to Uri Gordon article in daily Jerusaem post http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1181570256861&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Palestine-Israel, Friday Joint struggle against the separation fence in Bil'in and south Bethlehem 10 Jun 2007
In Bil'in we had the usual Friday demonstration like most of the previous 122 ones. Palestinians, internationals, and Israelis of the anarchists against the wall initiative. The marching and chanting was as usual with added placards of the 40 years to the occupation. Similar to the last 6 weeks, when we arrived at the foot of the hill the gate in the fence is on its top, the Israeli state force started to shower us with tear gas. We dispersed between the olive trees and many of us succeeded to arrive at route of the separation fence. First, on a point north of the gate and after we were dispersed with lot of tear gas and shock grenades, few of us succeeded to enter between the fences on the route of the separation fence from the south. However, when they marched between the fences towards the gate to the west, 6 Israelis of them were detained - 5 released at the end of the demonstration, one was taken to a far away police station but released too in the evening.
Few people were injured by bullets coated with rubber, but non in a serious way.
------------------------------
At south Bethlehem were planned two demonstrations - one in Um Salmuna and one at Artas. However, as the people started to converge in a location near the new fence in building, many policemen and other Israeli state forces blocked the main road from the village to the converging point. This block became the center of the demonstration. First, the villagers succeeded to find ways around the blocking and did converge at the appointed place. Then, the people confronted the state force and after 3 hours of nonviolent struggle forced their way back to the village. Some people were detained before the demonstration and within it, but released after it ended.
The Israelis and many of the others could not come to the intended demonstration in Artas.
Few people were injured by bullets coated with rubber, but non in a serious way.
------------------------------
At south Bethlehem were planned two demonstrations - one in Um Salmuna and one at Artas. However, as the people started to converge in a location near the new fence in building, many policemen and other Israeli state forces blocked the main road from the village to the converging point. This block became the center of the demonstration. First, the villagers succeeded to find ways around the blocking and did converge at the appointed place. Then, the people confronted the state force and after 3 hours of nonviolent struggle forced their way back to the village. Some people were detained before the demonstration and within it, but released after it ended.
The Israelis and many of the others could not come to the intended demonstration in Artas.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Anarkismo.net, Palestine-Israel, 40 Years of Occupation in Palestine - June 5-11 ; 05 Jun 2007
Call for Action by the Kibush 40 Coalition
The second week of June will mark forty years since the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Six Day war. This is now the longest enduring military occupation in the world. We can use this symbolic moment to hit out at those who benefit and profit from the pain and despair in Palestine, and to send the Israeli and G8 governments a message they cannot ignore.
This is a call-out for international direct actions against the occupation on June 6-12. We call in particular for actions against corporations profiting directly from the occupation that publicly shame them and/or cause them economic damage. Information on corporations involved with the occupation is available from http://www.boycottisrael.co.uk and many other sources, including a recent report by War on Want available at http://www.waronwant.org/download.php?id=443.
Call for Action
40 Years of Occupation in Palestine - June 5-11 The second week of June will mark forty years since the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Six Day war. This is now the longest enduring military occupation in the world. While the Israeli government evades negotiations that would end the occupation and lead to a just peace, the lives of Palestinians continue to be crushed daily by closures and economic strangulation, their land confiscated for settlements and their communities made into prisons by the Segregation Wall.
At the same time, violence in the region continues to supply ideological fuel for the G8 governments in their War on Terror', explicitly declared as a never-ending, pre-emptive global war which justifies erasing civil liberties, supporting oppressive regimes, and attacking refugees and migrants. We are all victims of this war: in Palestine and Israel, in Iraq and in Colombia, in Germany and in the U.S.A.
With the occupation at forty it should be clear to all that its forceful hegemony cannot be resisted by established political means alone. This is both morally insufficient and doomed to practical failure. As a strategic and practical alternative, the “Occupation 40? coalition is calling for six days of actions to mark forty years of occupation, on June 6 to 12 2007. A Global Day of Action has also been called on June 9.
The coalition is a democratic and non-hierarchical action platform of grassroots Israeli groups and organizations. Peace organizations, artists, students' groups, internal refugees, anarchists, animal rights activists, communists and individuals participate in this initiative. The six-day convergence in Israel will include demonstrations, direct actions, discussions and cultural events.
This is a call-out for international direct actions against the occupation on June 6-12. We call in particular for actions against corporations profiting directly from the occupation that publicly shame them and/or cause them economic damage. Information on corporations involved with the occupation is available from http://www.boycottisrael.co.uk and many other sources, including a recent report by War on Want available at http://www.waronwant.org/download.php?id=443.
We hope that actions will be organized to be decentralized and trust them to the initiative and self-organization of affinity groups around the world. These days of action fit well into this summer's international action calendar:
* June 5 - An international day of action against militarization, wars and occupations, in the run-up to the G8 summit in Germany.
* June 6-8 - Protests against the G8, with the participation of Palestinian and Israeli activists and Palestine Solidarity groups from around Europe.
* June 5-11 - 6 days of action against the Occupation, in Palestine/Israel and Internationally
* June 9 - Rally in London , Global Day of Action Against the Occupation
* June 10-11 - Protest, teach-in and lobby in Washington DC
Please distribute this call widely, and please organise for action with your groups and networks. We can use this symbolic moment to hit out at those who benefit and profit from the pain and despair in Palestine , and to send the Israeli and G8 governments a message they cannot ignore.
Kibush 40 Coalition:
Anarchists Against the Wall - http://awalls.org
Coalition of Women for Peace - http://coalitionofwomen.org
Gush Shalom - http://gush-shalom.org
Hadash - http://hadash.org.il/
Indymedia Israel - http://israel.indymedia.org
Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions - http://icahd.org/
Machsom Watch - http://machsomwatch.org
Ta'ayush - http://taayush.org
Zochrot - http://nakbainhebrew.org
International links:
Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (USA) - http://endtheoccupation.org
Campaign Against Israeli Apartheid ( Canada ) - http://caiaweb.org
Enough Coalition ( UK ) - http://www.enoughoccupation.org
See also:
40 Years Of Occupation In Jerusalem: A Summary Report Programme of events: 6 days of protests to mark 40 years of occupation
40.occupationposter.jpg
http://kibush40.org
add your comments
40 Years Of Occupation In Jerusalem: A Summary Report:
http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=5722
The second week of June will mark forty years since the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Six Day war. This is now the longest enduring military occupation in the world. We can use this symbolic moment to hit out at those who benefit and profit from the pain and despair in Palestine, and to send the Israeli and G8 governments a message they cannot ignore.
This is a call-out for international direct actions against the occupation on June 6-12. We call in particular for actions against corporations profiting directly from the occupation that publicly shame them and/or cause them economic damage. Information on corporations involved with the occupation is available from http://www.boycottisrael.co.uk and many other sources, including a recent report by War on Want available at http://www.waronwant.org/download.php?id=443.
Call for Action
40 Years of Occupation in Palestine - June 5-11 The second week of June will mark forty years since the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Six Day war. This is now the longest enduring military occupation in the world. While the Israeli government evades negotiations that would end the occupation and lead to a just peace, the lives of Palestinians continue to be crushed daily by closures and economic strangulation, their land confiscated for settlements and their communities made into prisons by the Segregation Wall.
At the same time, violence in the region continues to supply ideological fuel for the G8 governments in their War on Terror', explicitly declared as a never-ending, pre-emptive global war which justifies erasing civil liberties, supporting oppressive regimes, and attacking refugees and migrants. We are all victims of this war: in Palestine and Israel, in Iraq and in Colombia, in Germany and in the U.S.A.
With the occupation at forty it should be clear to all that its forceful hegemony cannot be resisted by established political means alone. This is both morally insufficient and doomed to practical failure. As a strategic and practical alternative, the “Occupation 40? coalition is calling for six days of actions to mark forty years of occupation, on June 6 to 12 2007. A Global Day of Action has also been called on June 9.
The coalition is a democratic and non-hierarchical action platform of grassroots Israeli groups and organizations. Peace organizations, artists, students' groups, internal refugees, anarchists, animal rights activists, communists and individuals participate in this initiative. The six-day convergence in Israel will include demonstrations, direct actions, discussions and cultural events.
This is a call-out for international direct actions against the occupation on June 6-12. We call in particular for actions against corporations profiting directly from the occupation that publicly shame them and/or cause them economic damage. Information on corporations involved with the occupation is available from http://www.boycottisrael.co.uk and many other sources, including a recent report by War on Want available at http://www.waronwant.org/download.php?id=443.
We hope that actions will be organized to be decentralized and trust them to the initiative and self-organization of affinity groups around the world. These days of action fit well into this summer's international action calendar:
* June 5 - An international day of action against militarization, wars and occupations, in the run-up to the G8 summit in Germany.
* June 6-8 - Protests against the G8, with the participation of Palestinian and Israeli activists and Palestine Solidarity groups from around Europe.
* June 5-11 - 6 days of action against the Occupation, in Palestine/Israel and Internationally
* June 9 - Rally in London , Global Day of Action Against the Occupation
* June 10-11 - Protest, teach-in and lobby in Washington DC
Please distribute this call widely, and please organise for action with your groups and networks. We can use this symbolic moment to hit out at those who benefit and profit from the pain and despair in Palestine , and to send the Israeli and G8 governments a message they cannot ignore.
Kibush 40 Coalition:
Anarchists Against the Wall - http://awalls.org
Coalition of Women for Peace - http://coalitionofwomen.org
Gush Shalom - http://gush-shalom.org
Hadash - http://hadash.org.il/
Indymedia Israel - http://israel.indymedia.org
Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions - http://icahd.org/
Machsom Watch - http://machsomwatch.org
Ta'ayush - http://taayush.org
Zochrot - http://nakbainhebrew.org
International links:
Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (USA) - http://endtheoccupation.org
Campaign Against Israeli Apartheid ( Canada ) - http://caiaweb.org
Enough Coalition ( UK ) - http://www.enoughoccupation.org
See also:
40 Years Of Occupation In Jerusalem: A Summary Report Programme of events: 6 days of protests to mark 40 years of occupation
40.occupationposter.jpg
http://kibush40.org
add your comments
40 Years Of Occupation In Jerusalem: A Summary Report:
http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=5722
Monday, June 4, 2007
Israel-Palestine, Alt. Media, Benny Tziper - We Deserve the British Academic Boycott!* 04 Jun 2007
Last Friday morning I drove to the Palestinian village of Bil'in. Bil'in, the village that has turned into a symbol of the struggle against the Apartheid Wall and against the confiscation of Palestinian land by fraudulent Jewish real-estate sharks who hide behind fake patriotism. Bil'in, a Palestinian village geographically close to Tel Aviv and central Israel and to call the fake leftists who inhabit Tel Aviv's coffee shops.
It's easiest to cry over the occupation from afar, without ever seeing a Palestinian close up. I believe that there may not be a solution to the Palestinian issue, but that's nothing to do with the fact that one can act like a human being and to show Palestinians, who are imprisoned behind fences and walls only a few kilometers from us, that we share their pain and sadness.
This time I went to Bil'in with my daughter Talila, whose idealism and love of others never stops amazing me and that is expressed in so many different ways. I am so very lucky that none of my children are among those vile conformists who attempt to show how interesting they are by traveling to India and South America!
My mother's cousin Lillian also joined us. She came from Paris for her first visit in Israel after many years of doubts. Lillian, professor of Spanish literature, translator and author, was a communist in her youth. She married a Moroccan Muslim, went to live in Morrocco and had two boys, one of whom I know well. His name is Rashid and he's about my age. He's a nuclear engineer living in Toulouse with his wife and three wonderful children.
Because of all this, Lillian was afraid to come to Israel. She was scared that if she comes, she'll have to undergo an invasive interrogation in the airport. This indeed happened in the El Al section of De Gaulle airport in Paris. She was made to stand on her feet for thirty minutes, attempting to answer questions asked by a woman who spoke very poor French and who had difficulty understanding her answers. She felt pretty humiliated, considering she'd done nothing wrong, and was shocked by the intimacy of the questions. But she wanted to board the flight, so she suffered it all in silence.
Despite all this, Lillian fell in love with Israel, was astounded by everything she encountered and praised the openness of Israelis, the beauty of the vistas in the Galilee and Jerusalem. But her most powerful experience she had here - in my opinion - was our visit to Bil'in. There she saw close up what many Israelis don't want to see. She saw together with me and with my daughter the brute force with which the Israeli soldiers - whom I have nothing against personally, of course, my complaints lie at the door of those who sent them - dispersed the tiny and non-violent demonstration that proceeded, as it does every Friday, from the mosque in Bil'in to the Apartheid Wall.
I should emphasize who the participants in this demonstration were. There is the elderly Palestinian with Parkinson's, who was close to Arafat and looks like a shade of a human being. Next to him there is a guy in a wheelchair, who was paralyzed in the lower half of his body after being shot with live ammunition by soldiers while tending his sheep. There are a few elderly Israelis, demonstration veterans, innocent Israeli and international youngsters, and Palestinians from the village, who really couldn't hurt a fly and for whom the demonstration has become a fixed ritual. And there was, as I mentioned, my cousin Lillian, who passed World War II in hiding.
And there was me. Me, who certainly doesn't pose a threat to the well-being of Israeli soldiers. Despite this, the soldiers attacked the non-violent demonstration aggressively and entirely disproportionately. Tear gas canisters landed on us one after another. This is the army's way of defending those real estate sharks who are scared that if someone will open their mouth too loudly, their plans to build their ugly buildings on land confiscated from Palestinians - idealistically called 'settlements' - will be spoiled.
In the newspapers, including my own, it was reported that two soldiers were injured in Bil'in that day. Maybe they were injured while running after seventy and eighty year-old demonstrators and after children and teenagers. What I know is that among the demonstrators there were some who required medical attention after being chased by the soldiers, but nobody wrote about them.
If my cousin had been as cowardly as the soldiers, perhaps she too could have said that oh god, she was injured by the gas that penetrated her eyes and throat, but she simply got over it, because she is a brave woman. Much braver than the Israeli soldiers, much to my dismay.
We found shelter in the house of Zahara and Hashem. Their house is the furthest one in village, the closest to the Apartheid Wall. Last week soldiers shot at it and threw tear gas canisters at it, knowing full well that there were children and defenseless elderly people in it. This week, the atmosphere was calmer. Zahara served tea made from herbs from her garden to all the demonstrators who crowded in the small living room. Two rooms and a kitchen, that is Zahara and Hashem's entire house. But it glowed with humanity.
Among the people who sat in the living room were youngsters from Zahara and Hashem's family. They all spoke fluent Hebrew. And there was a lecturer of political science from Al Quds University in East Jerusalem. His name was Issa Ibn Zuhairia. He told me of the torturous journey he has to undertake every day and every evening on his way from his house outside Jerusalem to the university that is in the municipal area of the city. He has been trying to get a certificate allowing him to stay in Jerusalem and that will spare him the wait at the checkpoints, but that takes time. Dr. Issa is not a violent person. He is an intellectual who wants to lead a normal life. But that is impossible for him, because that's the way it is. He's a Palestinian. As such, he cannot even step into the campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
No one will let him in there even to visit the library. And I never heard of a single Professor from the Hebrew University who objected to this policy, that under their very noses, they have colleagues who suffer terrible discrimination just because they are Palestinians.
However, there is a storm brewing in Israel about the 'anti-Semitism' of British universities who are threatening to boycott Israeli academics. And what about the boycott we impose on Palestinian academics? I think that the boycott the British declared on us is a wonderful thing, because finally some of our arrogant professors will start to feel a tiny drop of the feelings of Palestinian professors, whose academic freedom is routinely crushed under the force of Israeli occupation. Once there were academics like Leibovich, like Plosser, who protested the occupation with harsh words. Where are they today?
The vast majority of the Israeli academy today cooperates with the evil. When I wrote a few weeks ago in Ha'aretz that the digs undertaken by the Jerusalem-based archaeologist Ehud Nezer in Herodion (which is in the occupied territories) were illegal according to international law, I was attacked by two respected professors from the university with harsh words. They wanted to protect the honor of their colleague instead of admitting, like people with real honor, that confiscation of land is confiscation of land, even if it goes by a scientific name. In the case of Herodion it's the confiscation of the treasures of the past, and in the case of Bil'in it is the confiscation of the treasures of the present for some deluxe settlements.
It is true that one could say that British universities are acting hypocritically, and that they should have boycotted Chinese academics for China's violations of human rights, and Russian academics, for Russia's atrocities in Chechnya. Perhaps that is true, but in my opinon the fact that we are being boycotted should be blessed. After forty years of occupation, it's about time we understand that this situation cannot continue, that while we cry over how persecuted we are, we cynically crush the basic rights of the Palestinians underfoot.
It is true that it is not the professors in the universities who are oppressing Palestinians, but in their silence, they are approving of the atrocities. And with their huge egos they ignore what is happening at spitting distance from them: that there are professors and lecturers just like them who can be treated like dogs by every pissy soldier, whose decision it is whether or not they will give their lesson today, and all this because they are Palestinians.
England, cradle of civilization, I salute those civilized people amongst you, who finally found the courage to to say to Israeli academics that they can't just worry about their own academic freedom, and that true civilization means fighting for the academic freedoms and for the rights of those who do not have them.
You know what? I'm am looking forward to the day when every Israeli who took part in the evils of the occupation will be refused entry into England. I want to see the faces of all those young heroes, who throw tear gas canisters at elderly women and who chase a disabled man in a wheelchair, and then when they're done with the army travel to India and become spiritual.
That disabled guy in the wheelchair, the smiling sheep herder showed me his arm that had just been burned by a grenade. He didn't hate me for being Israeli or Jewish, despite what other Israeli Jews did to him. Zahara and Hashem could also come to me complaining that I am a citizen of the state that has been oppressing them for forty years. Instead they laid out for us a table in her kitchen, sat us around it and served us soup, and vegetable with zatar and home-baked pita bread.
---------------------------------------
By Benny Tziper who joined us again in the Friday contingent of the AATW to Bil'in Friday demonstration.
Translated by Rann Bar-On - original Hebrew at
http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/866785.html
============================
[Editor note:
After seeing yesterday screening of chanel 8 of dcumentary about the atrocities of the Israeli soldiers agains palestinian passer by at the road blocks on occupied Palestine ways, my selectivity of posts may be hampered a bit... I. S.]
It's easiest to cry over the occupation from afar, without ever seeing a Palestinian close up. I believe that there may not be a solution to the Palestinian issue, but that's nothing to do with the fact that one can act like a human being and to show Palestinians, who are imprisoned behind fences and walls only a few kilometers from us, that we share their pain and sadness.
This time I went to Bil'in with my daughter Talila, whose idealism and love of others never stops amazing me and that is expressed in so many different ways. I am so very lucky that none of my children are among those vile conformists who attempt to show how interesting they are by traveling to India and South America!
My mother's cousin Lillian also joined us. She came from Paris for her first visit in Israel after many years of doubts. Lillian, professor of Spanish literature, translator and author, was a communist in her youth. She married a Moroccan Muslim, went to live in Morrocco and had two boys, one of whom I know well. His name is Rashid and he's about my age. He's a nuclear engineer living in Toulouse with his wife and three wonderful children.
Because of all this, Lillian was afraid to come to Israel. She was scared that if she comes, she'll have to undergo an invasive interrogation in the airport. This indeed happened in the El Al section of De Gaulle airport in Paris. She was made to stand on her feet for thirty minutes, attempting to answer questions asked by a woman who spoke very poor French and who had difficulty understanding her answers. She felt pretty humiliated, considering she'd done nothing wrong, and was shocked by the intimacy of the questions. But she wanted to board the flight, so she suffered it all in silence.
Despite all this, Lillian fell in love with Israel, was astounded by everything she encountered and praised the openness of Israelis, the beauty of the vistas in the Galilee and Jerusalem. But her most powerful experience she had here - in my opinion - was our visit to Bil'in. There she saw close up what many Israelis don't want to see. She saw together with me and with my daughter the brute force with which the Israeli soldiers - whom I have nothing against personally, of course, my complaints lie at the door of those who sent them - dispersed the tiny and non-violent demonstration that proceeded, as it does every Friday, from the mosque in Bil'in to the Apartheid Wall.
I should emphasize who the participants in this demonstration were. There is the elderly Palestinian with Parkinson's, who was close to Arafat and looks like a shade of a human being. Next to him there is a guy in a wheelchair, who was paralyzed in the lower half of his body after being shot with live ammunition by soldiers while tending his sheep. There are a few elderly Israelis, demonstration veterans, innocent Israeli and international youngsters, and Palestinians from the village, who really couldn't hurt a fly and for whom the demonstration has become a fixed ritual. And there was, as I mentioned, my cousin Lillian, who passed World War II in hiding.
And there was me. Me, who certainly doesn't pose a threat to the well-being of Israeli soldiers. Despite this, the soldiers attacked the non-violent demonstration aggressively and entirely disproportionately. Tear gas canisters landed on us one after another. This is the army's way of defending those real estate sharks who are scared that if someone will open their mouth too loudly, their plans to build their ugly buildings on land confiscated from Palestinians - idealistically called 'settlements' - will be spoiled.
In the newspapers, including my own, it was reported that two soldiers were injured in Bil'in that day. Maybe they were injured while running after seventy and eighty year-old demonstrators and after children and teenagers. What I know is that among the demonstrators there were some who required medical attention after being chased by the soldiers, but nobody wrote about them.
If my cousin had been as cowardly as the soldiers, perhaps she too could have said that oh god, she was injured by the gas that penetrated her eyes and throat, but she simply got over it, because she is a brave woman. Much braver than the Israeli soldiers, much to my dismay.
We found shelter in the house of Zahara and Hashem. Their house is the furthest one in village, the closest to the Apartheid Wall. Last week soldiers shot at it and threw tear gas canisters at it, knowing full well that there were children and defenseless elderly people in it. This week, the atmosphere was calmer. Zahara served tea made from herbs from her garden to all the demonstrators who crowded in the small living room. Two rooms and a kitchen, that is Zahara and Hashem's entire house. But it glowed with humanity.
Among the people who sat in the living room were youngsters from Zahara and Hashem's family. They all spoke fluent Hebrew. And there was a lecturer of political science from Al Quds University in East Jerusalem. His name was Issa Ibn Zuhairia. He told me of the torturous journey he has to undertake every day and every evening on his way from his house outside Jerusalem to the university that is in the municipal area of the city. He has been trying to get a certificate allowing him to stay in Jerusalem and that will spare him the wait at the checkpoints, but that takes time. Dr. Issa is not a violent person. He is an intellectual who wants to lead a normal life. But that is impossible for him, because that's the way it is. He's a Palestinian. As such, he cannot even step into the campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
No one will let him in there even to visit the library. And I never heard of a single Professor from the Hebrew University who objected to this policy, that under their very noses, they have colleagues who suffer terrible discrimination just because they are Palestinians.
However, there is a storm brewing in Israel about the 'anti-Semitism' of British universities who are threatening to boycott Israeli academics. And what about the boycott we impose on Palestinian academics? I think that the boycott the British declared on us is a wonderful thing, because finally some of our arrogant professors will start to feel a tiny drop of the feelings of Palestinian professors, whose academic freedom is routinely crushed under the force of Israeli occupation. Once there were academics like Leibovich, like Plosser, who protested the occupation with harsh words. Where are they today?
The vast majority of the Israeli academy today cooperates with the evil. When I wrote a few weeks ago in Ha'aretz that the digs undertaken by the Jerusalem-based archaeologist Ehud Nezer in Herodion (which is in the occupied territories) were illegal according to international law, I was attacked by two respected professors from the university with harsh words. They wanted to protect the honor of their colleague instead of admitting, like people with real honor, that confiscation of land is confiscation of land, even if it goes by a scientific name. In the case of Herodion it's the confiscation of the treasures of the past, and in the case of Bil'in it is the confiscation of the treasures of the present for some deluxe settlements.
It is true that one could say that British universities are acting hypocritically, and that they should have boycotted Chinese academics for China's violations of human rights, and Russian academics, for Russia's atrocities in Chechnya. Perhaps that is true, but in my opinon the fact that we are being boycotted should be blessed. After forty years of occupation, it's about time we understand that this situation cannot continue, that while we cry over how persecuted we are, we cynically crush the basic rights of the Palestinians underfoot.
It is true that it is not the professors in the universities who are oppressing Palestinians, but in their silence, they are approving of the atrocities. And with their huge egos they ignore what is happening at spitting distance from them: that there are professors and lecturers just like them who can be treated like dogs by every pissy soldier, whose decision it is whether or not they will give their lesson today, and all this because they are Palestinians.
England, cradle of civilization, I salute those civilized people amongst you, who finally found the courage to to say to Israeli academics that they can't just worry about their own academic freedom, and that true civilization means fighting for the academic freedoms and for the rights of those who do not have them.
You know what? I'm am looking forward to the day when every Israeli who took part in the evils of the occupation will be refused entry into England. I want to see the faces of all those young heroes, who throw tear gas canisters at elderly women and who chase a disabled man in a wheelchair, and then when they're done with the army travel to India and become spiritual.
That disabled guy in the wheelchair, the smiling sheep herder showed me his arm that had just been burned by a grenade. He didn't hate me for being Israeli or Jewish, despite what other Israeli Jews did to him. Zahara and Hashem could also come to me complaining that I am a citizen of the state that has been oppressing them for forty years. Instead they laid out for us a table in her kitchen, sat us around it and served us soup, and vegetable with zatar and home-baked pita bread.
---------------------------------------
By Benny Tziper who joined us again in the Friday contingent of the AATW to Bil'in Friday demonstration.
Translated by Rann Bar-On - original Hebrew at
http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/866785.html
============================
[Editor note:
After seeing yesterday screening of chanel 8 of dcumentary about the atrocities of the Israeli soldiers agains palestinian passer by at the road blocks on occupied Palestine ways, my selectivity of posts may be hampered a bit... I. S.]
Anarkismo.net: Israel, Call for Action 40 Years of Occupation in Palestine - June 5-11 ; 04 Jun 2007
The second week of June will mark forty years since the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Six Day war. This is now the longest enduring military occupation in the world. While the Israeli government evades negotiations that would end the occupation and lead to a just peace, the lives of Palestinians continue to be crushed daily by closures and economic strangulation, their land confiscated for settlements and their communities made into prisons by the Segregation Wall. --- At the same time, violence in the region continues to supply ideological fuel for the G8 governments in their War on Terror', explicitly declared as a never-ending, pre-emptive global war which justifies erasing civil liberties, supporting oppressive regimes, and attacking refugees and migrants. We are all victims of this war: in Palestine and Israel, in Iraq and in Colombia, in Germany and in the U.S.A.
With the occupation at forty it should be clear to all that its forceful hegemony cannot be resisted by established political means alone. This is both morally insufficient and doomed to practical failure. As a strategic and practical alternative, the “Occupation 40? coalition is calling for six days of actions to mark forty years of occupation, on June 6 to 12 2007. A Global Day of Action has also been called on June 9.
The coalition is a democratic and non-hierarchical action platform of grassroots Israeli groups and organizations. Peace organizations, artists, students' groups, internal refugees, anarchists, animal rights activists, communists and individuals participate in this initiative. The six-day convergence in Israel will include demonstrations, direct actions, discussions and cultural events.
This is a call-out for international direct actions against the occupation on June 6-12. We call in particular for actions against corporations profiting directly from the occupation that publicly shame them and/or cause them economic damage. Information on corporations involved with the occupation is available from http://www.boycottisrael.co.uk and many other sources, including a recent report by War on Want available at http://www.waronwant.org/download.php?id=443.
We hope that actions will be organized to be decentralized and trust them to the initiative and self-organization of affinity groups around the world. These days of action fit well into this summer's international action calendar:
* June 5 - An international day of action against militarization, wars and occupations, in the run-up to the G8 summit in Germany.
* June 6-8 - Protests against the G8, with the participation of Palestinian and Israeli activists and Palestine Solidarity groups from around Europe.
* June 5-11 - 6 days of action against the Occupation, in Palestine/Israel and Internationally
* June 9 - Rally in London , Global Day of Action Against the Occupation
* June 10-11 - Protest, teach-in and lobby in Washington DC
Please distribute this call widely, and please organise for action with your groups and networks. We can use this symbolic moment to hit out at those who benefit and profit from the pain and despair in Palestine , and to send the Israeli and G8 governments a message they cannot ignore.
Kibush 40 Coalition:
Anarchists Against the Wall - http://awalls.org
Coalition of Women for Peace - http://coalitionofwomen.org
Gush Shalom - http://gush-shalom.org
Indymedia Israel - http://israel.indymedia.org Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions - http://icahd.org/ Machsom Watch - http://machsomwatch.org Ta'ayush - http://taayush.org Zochrot - http://nakbainhebrew.org
International links:
Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (USA) - http://endtheoccupation.org
Campaign Against Israeli Apartheid ( Canada ) - http://caiaweb.org
Enough Coalition ( UK ) - http://www.enoughoccupation.org
http://kibush40.org
40 Years Of Occupation In Jerusalem: A Summary Report:
http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=5722
With the occupation at forty it should be clear to all that its forceful hegemony cannot be resisted by established political means alone. This is both morally insufficient and doomed to practical failure. As a strategic and practical alternative, the “Occupation 40? coalition is calling for six days of actions to mark forty years of occupation, on June 6 to 12 2007. A Global Day of Action has also been called on June 9.
The coalition is a democratic and non-hierarchical action platform of grassroots Israeli groups and organizations. Peace organizations, artists, students' groups, internal refugees, anarchists, animal rights activists, communists and individuals participate in this initiative. The six-day convergence in Israel will include demonstrations, direct actions, discussions and cultural events.
This is a call-out for international direct actions against the occupation on June 6-12. We call in particular for actions against corporations profiting directly from the occupation that publicly shame them and/or cause them economic damage. Information on corporations involved with the occupation is available from http://www.boycottisrael.co.uk and many other sources, including a recent report by War on Want available at http://www.waronwant.org/download.php?id=443.
We hope that actions will be organized to be decentralized and trust them to the initiative and self-organization of affinity groups around the world. These days of action fit well into this summer's international action calendar:
* June 5 - An international day of action against militarization, wars and occupations, in the run-up to the G8 summit in Germany.
* June 6-8 - Protests against the G8, with the participation of Palestinian and Israeli activists and Palestine Solidarity groups from around Europe.
* June 5-11 - 6 days of action against the Occupation, in Palestine/Israel and Internationally
* June 9 - Rally in London , Global Day of Action Against the Occupation
* June 10-11 - Protest, teach-in and lobby in Washington DC
Please distribute this call widely, and please organise for action with your groups and networks. We can use this symbolic moment to hit out at those who benefit and profit from the pain and despair in Palestine , and to send the Israeli and G8 governments a message they cannot ignore.
Kibush 40 Coalition:
Anarchists Against the Wall - http://awalls.org
Coalition of Women for Peace - http://coalitionofwomen.org
Gush Shalom - http://gush-shalom.org
Indymedia Israel - http://israel.indymedia.org Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions - http://icahd.org/ Machsom Watch - http://machsomwatch.org Ta'ayush - http://taayush.org Zochrot - http://nakbainhebrew.org
International links:
Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (USA) - http://endtheoccupation.org
Campaign Against Israeli Apartheid ( Canada ) - http://caiaweb.org
Enough Coalition ( UK ) - http://www.enoughoccupation.org
http://kibush40.org
40 Years Of Occupation In Jerusalem: A Summary Report:
http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=5722
Palestine-Israel, The joint struggle against the separation fence and occupation - Bil'in and south of Bethlehem 04 Jun 2007
The struggle in Bil'in was intensified towards the expected verdict of the Israeli higher court of "justice" about the route of the separation fence and the building of a new neighborhood of the settler colonialist town Modi'in Ilit on lands of Bil'in. During the week a joint direct action tried to dismantle infrastructures built for the settlement on a land piece even Israeli court officially accepted it belongs to Bil'in citizens. In spite of it - Army and police intervened and confiscated a tractor doing the work.
In Friday demo, the participants: Palestinians, internationals, and Israelis of the anarchists against the wall initiative, marched as usual on the road leading from the village to the route of the separation fence - used for robbing most of Bil'in lands for the settlers town. As usual on the last weeks, when we reached the bottom of the hill the gate to the other side of the fence is on its top, we encounter a spool of barbed wire blocking the road, and gendarme officer with his team declaring the area military closed.
When the gendarmes were retreating up the hill so they will be safe from tear gas canisters thrown on us, few of us just followed them while they started to shower tear gas on the demonstrators who were far enough...
After a short time they tried to drive back our group that was too near for treatment with tear gas. They detained two members of the village popular comity, and tried to push the rest of us down the hill so they will be able to retreat and shower us with tear gas... After few rounds, I remained alone near the soldiers - refusing to get down till the road will be cleared from tear gas, taking advantage of the shame of the gendarmes to push hard an old Jewish demonstrator... So, they let me stay there till the commander issued an order to stop shooting tear gas grenades as all the others retreated far enough.
But, the demonstrators had not returned to the village, but were trying to approach the fence through the olive woods on the two sides of the road. Again and again a shower of tear gas prevented the advance, while the state force advanced slowly towards the village while showering tear gas and sporadicly shooting bullet coated with rubber on us and the stone throwing youth who tried to deter them. Two hours were enough for us this Friday and we returned to Israel.
----------------------------
South Bethlehem
In the region there are few villages but not all of them hold a regular Friday activities. This Friday there were two activities in the region in which AATW people participated.
The first one was in Um Salmuna. The activity started at 10:00 in the morning with a meeting and speeches.
Afterwards, people marched to the fields located on the other side of the route of the separation fence and did symbolic agricultural work in them including in fields adjacent to the Efrata colonialist settlement.
After the midday prayer, there was the second action in the near by Artas village. There people converged at the route in which the works are in progress. People rolled rocks to the already cleared route and symbolic replanted an already dried uprooted tree, surrounded it with rocks as protection.
Link to photos from a previous action in Artas: http://activestills.org/photos.php?setname=Artas&PHPSESSID=1bf7babf216c08dbc132536ab33370c1#id=513999359 In both actions, the Israeli state forces kept distance - and just monitored it from a distance.
Related links:
http://awalls.org
http://activestills.org
http://www.kibush40.org
http://matzpen.org
Ilan S.
http://ilan.shalif.com/anarchy/glimpses/glimpses.html
In Friday demo, the participants: Palestinians, internationals, and Israelis of the anarchists against the wall initiative, marched as usual on the road leading from the village to the route of the separation fence - used for robbing most of Bil'in lands for the settlers town. As usual on the last weeks, when we reached the bottom of the hill the gate to the other side of the fence is on its top, we encounter a spool of barbed wire blocking the road, and gendarme officer with his team declaring the area military closed.
When the gendarmes were retreating up the hill so they will be safe from tear gas canisters thrown on us, few of us just followed them while they started to shower tear gas on the demonstrators who were far enough...
After a short time they tried to drive back our group that was too near for treatment with tear gas. They detained two members of the village popular comity, and tried to push the rest of us down the hill so they will be able to retreat and shower us with tear gas... After few rounds, I remained alone near the soldiers - refusing to get down till the road will be cleared from tear gas, taking advantage of the shame of the gendarmes to push hard an old Jewish demonstrator... So, they let me stay there till the commander issued an order to stop shooting tear gas grenades as all the others retreated far enough.
But, the demonstrators had not returned to the village, but were trying to approach the fence through the olive woods on the two sides of the road. Again and again a shower of tear gas prevented the advance, while the state force advanced slowly towards the village while showering tear gas and sporadicly shooting bullet coated with rubber on us and the stone throwing youth who tried to deter them. Two hours were enough for us this Friday and we returned to Israel.
----------------------------
South Bethlehem
In the region there are few villages but not all of them hold a regular Friday activities. This Friday there were two activities in the region in which AATW people participated.
The first one was in Um Salmuna. The activity started at 10:00 in the morning with a meeting and speeches.
Afterwards, people marched to the fields located on the other side of the route of the separation fence and did symbolic agricultural work in them including in fields adjacent to the Efrata colonialist settlement.
After the midday prayer, there was the second action in the near by Artas village. There people converged at the route in which the works are in progress. People rolled rocks to the already cleared route and symbolic replanted an already dried uprooted tree, surrounded it with rocks as protection.
Link to photos from a previous action in Artas: http://activestills.org/photos.php?setname=Artas&PHPSESSID=1bf7babf216c08dbc132536ab33370c1#id=513999359 In both actions, the Israeli state forces kept distance - and just monitored it from a distance.
Related links:
http://awalls.org
http://activestills.org
http://www.kibush40.org
http://matzpen.org
Ilan S.
http://ilan.shalif.com/anarchy/glimpses/glimpses.html
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