Though not yet a regular weekly actions, the Anarchists against the Wall activists were invited by grass roots Palestinian activists to actions and meetings for organizing at Nahalin, Beit Jala, and Bidu. We also participated in the regular weekend actions. Friday we were in Bil'in (where a press conference with Naomi Klein "No Logo" preceded the demo. We were also in Ni'ilin, and Um Salmuna. On Saturday AAtW activists participated in the weekly action to facilitate the efforts of the Saffa villagers to cultivate their lands that are near the Bat Ain settlement. The need for that aid is because the Bat Ain settler colonialists, with the aid of state forces, try to prevent the cultivation of the land in preparation to robing the land adjacent to the settlement.
BIL'IN
Last Monday June 22, 2009 the trail of the court in Canada had been started in Quebec against the two Canadian companies (Green Park and Green Mount) the first session of the trail took place till last Thursday. Representatives of Bilin Popular committee and Bilin village are attending these trails.
Thursday morning. 25-6-2009 . Broke into a large force of military occupation the village of Bil'in.Where they searched more than a dozen houses. They also kidnapped two.
This did not prevent the preparation for the Friday press conference and the demonstration against the separation fence and occupation.
On Friday, "some 150 Palestinians, Israelis and Internationals demonstrated today in the West Bank village of Bil'in against the Apartheid Wall and the settlements built on Palestinian land.
Prior to the demonstration a press conference took place, where a representative of the village's popular committee, a member of the Palestinian Boycott National Committee and world renowned Canadian journalist and author Naomi Klein spoke of the local struggle, of the village's new court case in Canada against Canadian companies building the new neighborhoods on Bil'in land, on the boycott, and of the inability to detach art and politics.
Following the press conference and the Friday prayer demonstrators marched towards the illegal fences build on the village's agricultural lands, and were met with an unprovoked tear-gas attack by the Israeli Occupation Forces. The demonstration went on for about an hour, facing levels of violence that were lower than the usual, perhaps due to Klein's visit, or to Israeli attempts to impress US President Obama to "prove" Israeli interest in peace. The demonstration ended as the IOF used [again] its new tear gas canon, shooting 25 gas canisters in a second.
No serious injuries were noted.
UM SALMUNA / MAASARA
"Some 10 Israelis and 30 internationals joined a few dozen Palestinians for the weekly demo in Maasara/Um Salmona. The demo marched towards the barbed wire set by the army (which advances Salami-style into the village from time to time) carrying a huge Palestinian flag. The demonstrators stood at the barbed wire, and chanted and made speeches in Arabic, English and Hebrew, led in part by Um Hassan, who took the place of her arrested and court-order-restrained sons.
When the soldiers started harassing a couple of photographers standing at the vine plot next to the barbed wire some protesters went to sit there in protest. A few minutes later the army declared a closed military zone and threatened arrests. The army then detained the most outspoken international activist, and after the demonstration was declared over, also an Israeli demonstrator, who demanded the release of the detained international, and who had gotten on the officer's bad side by making a highly impressive speech to the soldiers linking the oppression of Israeli workers and Palestinian villagers. The soldiers pushed the demonstrators who remained in the area into the village, and then backed off, released the detainees, and left the village.
NI'ILIN
Ni’lin demonstrates against the Apartheid Wall 26 June 2009
Approximately one hundred and fifty Palestinian, Israeli and international protesters gathered in the hot sun for the weekly demonstration in Nilin. They marched together towards the separation barrier, chanting and waving Palestinian flags.
As the demonstrators reached the wall and started cutting the razor wire on the walls edge, Israeli armed forces opened fire with teargas. Their jeeps fired multiple rounds of teargas in an effort to blanket the whole area and they continued firing until the demonstration dispersed. Several of the protesters suffered from the effects of teargas, but no one was badly injured. The protest lasted for about one hour and a half and protesters succeeded in removing parts of the razor wire and damaging the fence.
Ni'ilin Friday 26.6.2009 video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c95L_IYlYXY
SAFFA
"This coming Saturday (early in the morning), as in every Saturday in the last couple of months, we will go to the village Khirbet Saffa to join local farmers at work. For those who don't know, during the last couple of months there have been repeated attempts by farmers to work their lands. These attempts were repeatedly confronted with closed military zone warrants accompanied with arrests and army violence as well as, in the last couple of weeks, violence from the settlers of the adjacent Bat Ayin.
The situation turned worse this week when, during the night between Sunday and Monday, some 130 trees (mostly vines and plums) were set on fire, uprooted and cut down in the plot of our friend Ahmed Slaivi. Tomorrow (Thursday) evening a meeting is scheduled with Saffa farmers, but they have already told us they intend to return to work their lands on Saturday, and invite everyone to join. People who would like more information are welcome to call B."
Links to documentation about Saffa struggle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIuMC5vkHUU&feature=channel_page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0PWVkpv29g&feature=channel
Saturday:
"27 June 2009: Israeli forces arrest 24 solidarity activists and 2 hired Palestinian Israeli drivers in the West Bank village of Saffa.
At 7.30am, 35 Israeli and 10 international solidarity activists joined 3 Palestinian families from Beit Ummar to harvest their land. As the group tried to go down to their lands, 50 soldiers and border policemen stopped them.
Before reaching the land, Israeli forces arrested 10 Israeli and international activists, under the premise that Saffa was under a Closed Military Zone*. The army was aggressive towards the group and used violence against them.
After pushing the group, border policemen arrested another 9 activists.
Yousef Abu Maria from the Palestine Solidarity Project [who ave just lately released from a long שdministrative imprisonment], had his leg broken from the use of excessive force. Israeli soldiers tried to arrest him, but the solidarity activists negotiated for the soldiers to release him and allow him to be taken by an ambulance from the Palestinian Red Crescent. He is currently being treated at a Hebron hospital.
A female Israeli activist from Tayyoush was also injured and is currently at an Israeli hospital seeking treatment for a potentially broken hand.
As 2 cars with hired drivers were leaving the area with other activists, Israeli forces stopped them and arrested 5 more activists and the 2 Palestinian Israeli drivers.
The arrested were taken to the Israeli prison in the illegal settlement of Gush Etzion.
The arrested activists are members from Palestine Solidarity Project, Tayyoush, Anarchists Against the Wall, and the International Solidarity Movement. They have been accompanying Palestinian farmers to document and deter violence from Israeli forces as the farmers harvest their land.
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*Israeli forces have declared the area in Saffa a Closed Military Zone (CMZ), in direct violation of an Israeli Supreme Court decision. The Israeli Supreme Court determined that Closed Military Zones cannot be issued on Palestinian agricultural land, cutting off Palestinian farmers, for prolonged periods of time. However, Israeli forces have been regularly declaring a Closed Military Zone on farm land in Saffa since 2 April 2009.
Saffa today - Media reports
http://news.walla.co.il/?w=/1/1510076
http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3737627,00.html
http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/1095955.html
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