Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Palestine-Israel, The joint struggle is not intimidated by the change of seasons

Another olive picking season is ending with its confrontations with settler colonialists slowly encroaching on adjacent lands of Palestinian villages. Accompanying villagers at the lands coveted by neighboring settler colonialists and the Israeli state continue - in addition to the regular weekend joint demonstrations. Anata, Beit Ummar, Bil'in, Ma'asara, Nabi Saleh, Ni'lin, Qaddum, Sheikh Jarrah, South of Hebron Hills, Walajah. Within Israel the Bedouins are in a much wider confrontation than Arakib. The Struggle for Social Justice is still fermenting even if not with the original intensity. The not predictable political storms of the winter that just begin are approaching.

Anatot

Anatot is not a peaceful, so called "quality of life" settlement, just five minutes from Jerusalem. Anatot is a settlement which regularly robs private Palestinian lands, and terrorizes the neighboring villages. As in the most extreme out-posts, also in Anatot there is a kernel of violent rioters who believe they are above the law.

The past month will be remembered as the watershed moment in terms of the right-wing terror who focused it on Israeli activist at the gates of Anatot. Between the burned mosques, the uprooted treed and the wounded activists, it has become clear that this sort of violence is a wide-spread and growing phenomenon.

The calling out are not only against settler-violence, but against a whole system which has let this kind of behavior spread and has backed it up. Since the beginning of the "price-tag" actions there, the police is systematically failing in investigating these events and the vast majority of investigations that were carried out ended with no persecution (read more in the Yesh Din's report). Throughout the past month we have learned and seen how the security forces turn their watchful eye away from such actions, in the best case, or in the worst case, actively participate in them.

A protest vigil in Anatot, Friday, 11/11/11, 13:00.
Ido Grumer http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150353626015732.348278.643775731
By Narine Melikyan http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2475539083757.134397.1110863588
Lior Ben Eliahu http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2077808235820.136326.1563442697
israelpnm http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVBuPBPGg_g
guybo111 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX7lPsmeNew
http://on.fb.me/rIiKmn


Bil'in

Friday 11-11-11 was another demo in the chain of about 350 demonstrations against the separation/robbery wall/fence and occupation organized by the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Bil'in with the anarchists against the wall initiative. At noon, about 10 Israelis, 20 international activists (including an Irish and a Brazilian delegations), and few dozens Palestinians marched towards the new separation wall. (The older separation fence was dismantled in June after 6 years of struggle - returning about third of the robbed lands of the village). Along the the march, participants carried flags and chanted for the departure of the occupation, destruction of the apartheid wall, freedom and rights for Palestinian prisoners.

Upon our arrival to the Abu Lemon nature reserve, some local participants were able to remove some of the barbed wire and iron posts that blocked us from touching the separation wall. Then The soldiers behind the concrete wall shot tear gas canisters and rubber bullets toward the demonstrators, which caused an injury to a Brazilian activist who was transported by Ambulance to Ramallah hospital. It also caused various levels of suffocation to many of the participants - some of them were treated during the demo.
Photos: http://on.fb.me/vVjMqA
Haitham Khatib video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5YRKu585NU


Al-Ma'asara weekly protest, Nov. 11, 2011

Friday, Nov. 11, 2011, in the village of al-Ma'asrah (near the West Bank city of Bethlehem). After the protest against the wall and occupation, a member of the local poplar committee was arrested by soldiers as he walked back to his home after a very peaceful demonstration in the village.
Photos by Nasser Shiyoukhi http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.308820029128308.85934.136633479680298
http://on.fb.me/sQ8H9e


Nabi Saleh

Dozens participated in this week's demonstration in Nabi Saleh, this time commemorating the seventh anniversary to Arafat's assassination by Israel. Nabi Saleh residents, other Palestinians, and international and Israeli supporters marched peacefully from the center of the village on the main road leading towards Ramallah. Israeli forces used their “skunk” track, carrying a foul-smelling water cannon, to attack the demonstrators. This followed shortly by volleys of tear gas projectiles. After a while, the entire area close to the soldiers smelled from the “skunk” and they retreated. At this point demonstrators started descending towards the village's spring, taken by settlers. The Israeli army shot tear gas and rubber-coated bullets at the descending crowd. It then deepened its incursion into the village, taking over rooftops and the village's center, shooting tear gas and rubber-coated bullets at passers-by, including children. More then ten people were injured, including an eleven year old who was shot in the chest and an organizer from the village, who was shot in the face and rushed to a near-by hospital. A local photographer was detained for a few hours. He was blindfolded and cuffed with his hands behind his back.


Another take:

"A peaceful protest in the village of Nabi Saleh was attacked with tear-gas from afar today by Israeli soldiers, as protesters tried to march to their lands adjacent to the Jewish-only settlement of Halamish. Following the attack on the peaceful procession, clashes ensued between soldiers and local youth.

The soldiers shot volleys of tear-gas projectiles into the crowd, as well as rubber-coated bullets, causing injuries to at least ten protesters, among them an eleven year-old who was hit by a rubber-coated bullet to the chest and suffers a suspected fracture to the rib. An organizer from the village was hit in the face by a rubber-coated bullet shot from close range and was evacuated to the hospital.

Bilal Tamimi, a local cameraman and a volunteer with the B'Tselem Shooting Back documentation project, was arrested by soldiers as he was filming the demonstration. He was blindfolded, cuffed with his hands behind his back and taken to the military base in the adjacent settlement of Halamish. Currently, soldiers have taken over the center of the village and are patrolling its streets."

Photos: http://on.fb.me/rOH5xZ
Photos by Ahmad Al-Jorbaji, Fadi Arouri, Eyad Jadallah, Mohamad Torokman, Majdi Mohammed & Abbas Momani
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.308815145795463.85930.136633479680298
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.308870919123219.85943.136633479680298
tamimi1966 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l4LcqVKIi0
David Reeb http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhRDd34JtlU

Ni'lin

On Friday,after the Friday prayer under the olive trees in the fields, a massive peaceful demonstration started, joined by dozens of demonstrators from Ni’lin along with number of international peace activists. the demonstration was called by Ni’lin popular committee against the Apartheid wall.
Before arriving to the gate of the apartheid wall, the Israeli soldiers starting firing tear grenades directly at the protesters as they marched towards the Wall even before it arrived there. Moreover,they shot 5 live bullets in the air to scare the demonstrators, and started shooting rubber coated steel bullets direct at the demonstrators which led to the injury of four demonstrators in different places in the body. and another five others suffered a lot as a result of inhaling tear gas.
www.nilin-village.org http://on.fb.me/touDS9
hassan daboos http://www.facebook.com/media /set/?set=a.245333438856453.61398.228124070577390
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcTmmqQN7Vs


Qaddum

The village of Kufer Qaddum, north of Qalqilia, has also seen an attack on the demonstration there today, resulting in three injuries from direct hits by tear-gas projectiles, including one to the head. An American activist and a Palestinian protester in his 30's were arrested by the soldiers and taken to the police station in the Ariel settlement. Shortly after his arrest, the American sent an SMS to one of his friends saying that the soldiers are assaulting him.
International communities - http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.308934412450203.85952.136633479680298
Fatimzahra031 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw02r3K-eQw
http://on.fb.me/s6l2pZ

South of Hebron Hills

Activists accompanied Palestinian villagers to land near colonialist settlements.


Walajah

Friday the 4th of November -
After meeting outside the second mosque about 20 villagers, a number of Israeli and a few international activists walked to the entrance of the illegal Har Gilo settlement. There we stood chanting and a few speeches were given. After the head of security for the Har Gilo settlement came down and saw us with a Border Police van they were joined by the arrest van, another jeep and a police van. We were then joined by another car of Israeli activists. There was a basic stand-off while the army it seemed were waiting for us to do something. If we had crossed an arbitrarily imaginary line then there would have been action. Two sets of soldiers spread out on either side of us; one on the road to Jerusalem and one to the left of us. After an hour we left and those that wanted went on a tour with Shireen. Pictures from the day can be found here : http://www.flickr.com/photos/activestills/sets/72157602013963483/

Friday the 11th of November -
We waited outside the mosque at 1230 - two Israelis, three internationals, a member of active stills and a villager. When it was clear that there was not going to be a demonstration and after some debating we went to the house of a friend and sat in her court yard where we were joined by Mazin Qumsiyeh. Mazen shared with us his interesting and mostly amusing stories from the Flotillas and his experiences in Turkey and Cario. Some he has written about and others we were lucky to be privy to. You can find more about it here - http://popular-resistance.blogspot.com/ He also discussed the history of uprising in Palestine and this led him to mentioning a Popular Committee meeting scheduled for Saturday night. They will be discussing the rises and falls in uprisings, what actions can take place in the lulls and how they as Popular Committees can better organize and mobilize. He also mentioned to me their desire to arrange a meeting for and with Israeli activists. Just a heads up....

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