During the week activists of the AAtW were involved with prisoners support - both Israelis and Palestinians, and Refusnics struggle. On Friday we mobilized to Bilin, Ma'asara, Nabi Saleh, Ni'ilin, and Sheikh Jarrah. Media: '“Israel recognizes the threat of the popular movement and its potential for expanding,” said Jonathan Pollak, an Israeli anarchist and spokesman of the of the (Palestinian west bank) Popular Struggle Coordination Committee. Israel tougher line: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/29/world/middleeast/29palestine.html'. Part of tougher line: Thursday pre-down arrest in Bil'in of Mohamed Khatib the coordinator of the Committee. On Saturday comrades accompany shepherds in confronting efforts of driving away Palestinian shepherds and farmers from their lands. in South Mt. Hebron.
BILIN
Video from Thursday pre-down raid in Bil'in: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4B6X9qjIVI
This Friday state forces did not try to block our way to the demonstration against the separation fence and occupation. About 40 of us of the Israeli Anarchists Against the Wall initiative joined internationals, Palestinians who came to Bil'in (including few dignitaries) and of course increased number of the village in response to the arrest of Mohamed Khatib the day before, and international media agencies too). After the usual march we arrived at the gate of the separation fence. Short time after the speeches state force started with noise grenades, tear-gas canisters and later added rubber-coated steel bullets. As the wind this Friday was not friendly to us, the acrid tear gas forces most of us few hundreds meters back.
The state force escalated this week their new policy and crossed the fence in big number and "toured" the area on the fringe of the built area and even the main street. Tear and sound grenades were used against youth who expressed their unwelcoming by stones...
This Friday we suffered a lot from the new and intense acrid tear gas, but non was seriously wounded or arrested.
Friday 29.1.2010 video of demonstration at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8TcqyXu1yw
MA'ASARA
Previous Friday:
Interview in Ma'asara with Israeli activist http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPA48zuWfm8
After Ma'asara village's weekly demonstration against Israel's apartheid wall and illegal settlements, women from the village sing about having no fear of the violence being used against them; soldiers remain on a Palestinian family's rooftop; and an Israeli activist talks about communicating with soldiers at weekly demonstrations in Palestine.
Friday
Once again Palestinian, Israeli and international activists gathered in Ma'asara for this week's Friday demonstration. Marking the anniversary to the assassination of Palestinian leader George Habash the demonstration was joint by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, including Tawfiq Tirawy.
The 70 or so demonstrators marched from the center of the village to the sound of drums, passed a lone military jeep stationed in the entrance to the village, and preceded towards the route of the Apartheid Wall. As usual they were met by barbed wire laid on the road and a raw of (mainly reserve) soldiers.
Speeches were carried in English, French, Arabic and Hebrew, and slogans chanted for half an hour. On their way back to the village demonstrators stopped in front of the lone jeep, fearing an incursion. Two more jeeps quickly joined the first one, and armed soldiers threatened the demonstrators. Choosing to de-escalate the situation demonstrators backed into the village peacefully, and the army left shortly after.
NABI SALEH
Previous Friday (22-1-10) report: In An Nabi Saleh about 100 Palestinian protestors from the village and the neighboring village Dir Nizam, as well as their international and Israeli supporters, gathered in the center of the village and started marching toward the land and water spring that are being confiscated from them by the neighboring settlement Halamish, with the support of the occupation army. While the demonstrators were still marching inside the village, IOF started attacking the demo indiscriminately from various directions shooting tear gas, terrorizing by that the remaining residents of the village, who were then destined to suffocation and closure, with no escape option. For two hours IOF attack on the village continued as some of the protesters try to push back the soldiers by throwing stones at them. One time the army shot through a cannon dozens of tear gas canisters towards the middle of the village. The army also shot rubber-coated steel bullets and live ammunition. 6 demonstrators were injured. The army also arrested 6 protestors, among them 3 Palestinian women and one Israeli Jew, who was released after an hour due to his privileged origin and status. One Palestinian woman was release in the morning after and the rest, as of Tuesday, are still in detention without seeing a judge.
See this too: http://hagada.org.il/hagada/html/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=7232
Nabi Saleh on Ynet http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3839256,00.html
Video of officer cursing in Nabi Saleh http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gGQP2JKR14\
This Friday
In An Nabi Salih, the neighboring village Deir Nidham was under curfew so it was not able to hold the parallel demonstration as it has in the past few weeks. The demonstration was well attended and as it started to march out of the village towards the lands it was met with several border police jeeps parked next to the last houses of the village. The marchers resisted the provocation of the invasion and sat down on the road and chanted and sang songs. Slowly the marchers inched their way towards the jeeps still only chanting and singing. At a certain point, without a single pretext give the army began to shoot tear gas at the demonstrators.
The army and border police were equipped with a variety of weapons including the multiple canister tear gas launcher, 'the skunk' : an organic compound design to have a foul odor shot through a water canon as plastic coated well as metal balls shot in place of the 'ordinary' rubber coated metal bullets.
At some point in the demonstration, the border police deliberately targeted a house close to the road which had large easy to hit windows. They shot at least one tear gas canister into the house causing about 20 people to be trapped inside without the ability to escape the gas. The victims included Young children and old women. To get away from the suffocating gas, young children were passed down from a third story window to people who climbed the side of the house. At the end of the day 8 people were taken to hospital, mostly from tear gas inhalation.
Although this Friday was only the fourth protest of its kind, Nabi Salah has fast become a hub of the popular struggle, adopting the non-violent principles of its sister movements in Bilin and Ni’lin.
Nebi Saleh video of 29-1-10 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCmO3nbMcFs
NI'ILIN
On 22-1-10 Friday in Ni'ilin, some 150 demonstrators marched to the route of the wall to demonstrate there against the annexation and the aggressive suppression campaign held against the village. For the last nights, some 16 of the village youth were arrested in military night raids. And yet – the villagers alongside the international & Israeli supporters who once again joined the demonstration after crossing fields by foot, went on demonstrating and resisting the soldier's invasion to the village fields for hours.
This Friday
in Ni'lin, about 150 protesters headed to the wall route after the Friday prayer. The demonstration marked prisoner day, and aside from the religious sermon, the participants heard speeches by Salah Khawaja, the Village legendary medic, and Dr. Mustafa Barghouty. The group arrived at the gate and was greeted by the soldiers guarding it with a volley of tear gas grenades. Some of the protesters then responded with stones, while others expressed their opposition to the land theft by chanting slogans against the wall and by raising posters produced by the Ni'lin Media Group. After approximately an hour and a half, a group of soldiers crossed the wall, and two soldiers, apparently from a special unit, armed with hand guns and fired in the air while they ran after the group of protesters and arrested a person visiting Ni'ilin from yabrud. The village youth continued resisting the army's invasion for another two hours, and the protest ended with no injuries recorded aside from tear gas inhalation.
REFUSNICS
On February 1st, Emelia Marcovich is going to military prison for refusing to serve in the Israeli army Because we can't understand why having a conscience is a crime, we'll be holding a demonstration in support of Emelia. Thursday, January 28th, 18:30 We'll meet in Dizengoff sq.
A simultaneous demo will take place in London:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=260824171593&ref=nf
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=442493695170&index=1
SHEIKH JARRAH
The Israeli Zionist left support to the joint struggle of the anarchists against the separation fence and occupation was for years limited to subtle activities like giving more space to our people and our activities in the media, enhancement of the "democracy for Jews", so the state will allow us access to the locations of actions, be lenient when we break their laws and will restrict the physical harm they cause us and our Palestinian partners in the joint actions.
(Till now only three of us detained to more than 40 hours and served longer time in jail - as they refused alternatives. Only 19 of our Palestinian partners were murdered - but non of the Israelis. Among the two scores of Israelis hit by rubber coated bullets and grenades only few needed hospitalization and only 3 suffered chronic health damage.)
Real participation of the Zionist left in our struggle was mainly restricted to media cover missions, and participation of thousands of them (once mainly, but few hundreds came more than once) as individuals in the Friday demonstrations against the separation fence in Bil'in (that even the Israeli highest court of "justice" decreed that it must be moved few hundreds meters to the west...)
The involvement of the Israeli Zionist left in the struggle in Sheikh Jarrah is a qualitative escalation. This time prominent members of the elite of culture like David Grosman and political left like parliament members of the Merets party sided in public and joined Sheikh Jarrah action that protest verdicts of Israeli courts.
Court blocks police bid to keep 18 protesters away http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=167195
Author David Grossman: Settlers abuse Palestinians
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1146191.html
Speaking to the protestors, Grossman said, "Sometimes, it's not possible to sit and be silent. Settlers and the political right aided by the government, the legal system, and economic powers abuse the Palestinians in 1,001 different ways."
At a morning radio program Yosi Sarid - ex-leader of the Merets party said he regret it but he will not be able to return this Friday to the demo in Sheikh Jarrah he participated the previous Friday. (Another Parliament member of this party came instead of him...)
Previous reports
Sheikh Jarrah - a look from within: http://eyalniv.wordpress.com/2010/01/25/sheikh-jarah/
Pictures and video at: http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article1247
Inside the SJ neighborhood during 22.1.10 demo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QkiD8IpY00
Another video of SJ 22.1.10 demo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lv3gL-Y1ecg
Notice: Settlers are having some of the most extreme right wing activists staying at SJ through Saturday. (They did a counter demo Friday but it was small and ridiculous in comparison with our demo on the other side of the road.) We need people to come and hang out and stay.
Media: Police vow to squash East Jerusalem protests despite court order... http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1145875.html (but they got cold feet or strict order from above and did nothing.)
Friday
In Sheikh Jarrah there was yet another big demonstration, and for the first time in quite a while – with no arrests made at all. After several weeks of ongoing police oppression the Jerusalem court issued two rulings in support of the demonstrations, stating these were legal and that their dispersal was illegitimate. And so some 300 demonstrators gathered this Friday afternoon at the entrance to the neighborhood, including several members of Knesset, and protested against the racist house evictions. (Half, Israelis from west Jerusalem, nearly half from Tel Aviv region, Palestinians from the neighborhood, and media too... may who few hours earlier participated in other demod.) Placards, banners, and chanting were a plenty. Among the chants: "SJ protests will be the beginning of the 3rd intifada".
Opposite the demonstration stood tens of riot policemen, and five radical right-wing counter-demonstrators. A short heated debate with the fascists and a failed (by the police) attempt made by a few demonstrators to enter the neighborhood and plant flowers were the only two extraordinary events. Otherwise the cheerful and energetic demonstration went on peacefully for an hour and a half.
video-Settler Attack in Sheikh Jarrah with M-16 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_noYAfW7dm4
Sheikh Jarrah article in Walla http://news.walla.co.il/?w=/104/1638185
SOUTH OF HEBRON
In the last weeks military forces in south Mt. Hebron are constantly engaged in driving away Palestinian shepherds and farmers from their lands. In many places shepherds told us they no longer dare going to their lands without our accompaniment. They need us with them. Therefore, this Saturday, 30 January, we shall go there again to accompany shepherds in various locations in South Mt. Hebron.
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