The first starter was the Mas'ha Joint camp of Israeli anarchists an some others with local Palestinian activists. It took two years of sporadic struggles till the Bil'in persistent location of struggle materialized. Some three years of sporadic struggles in parallel to Bil'in till Ni'ilin village join as the second persistent location. It took additional two years and the addition of Ma'sare before stable and persistent locations of struggle expanded beyond the separation fence when the struggle in Beit Ummar stabilized an heroic Nabi Saleh confrontations with encroaching colonial settlement too, expand the scope of the joint struggle. The maturing of the joint comity of the popular local struggles and the joining the struggle of new villages lately my be the verge of a qualitative upsurge of the struggle of popular grass root communities.
Beit Ummar
Saturday weekly demo.
Bil'in
Hundreds attend Bil’in’s 7th annual day of struggle against the Wall.
Israeli police and army mount a massive operation to stop Israelis from reaching the special Friday protest, marking seven years of popular and joint struggle in Bil’in with only partial success.
Seventh annual demonstration By Haggai Matar
"In the beginning there were engineers, soldiers and bulldozers. It was after the International Court of Law in The Hague had already barred construction of The Separation Wall within the West Bank, and before the Israeli High Court of Justice found the Wall’s route in Bil’in illegal. It was after someone somewhere decided that more than 2,000 dunams of the village’s agricultural lands were to be annexed to Israel by force, and before countless people would be arrested and injured, and two killed. The engineers marked which trees to uproot, and the villagers removed the marks. The soldiers came to disperse the demonstrations, and the demonstrators tied themselves to the olive trees. The bulldozers started tearing the land, and the activists stood in their way. Day after day. A battle for every tree and every yard.
Seven years have passed since the first engineers, soldiers and bulldozers appeared in Bil’in. Seven years since the local Popular Committee against the Wall and the Settlements was founded, drawing from the experience of villages such as Mes’kha, Bidu and Budrus. Seven years since the Israelis and internationals were first invited to join in on the popular struggle. In the years that passed a fence was erected, causing incredible damage, and recently torn down in favor of a new wall, in a route which gives the village back some of its lands – but not all of them. The village has gained international attention and has become an example of a people’s unarmed struggle for liberation – a struggle which goes on to this day.
Targeting Israeli solidarity
To celebrate the struggle’s anniversary, the popular committee issued a special call, inviting Palestinians, Israelis and internationals to join together and raise the flag once more – focusing on the demand to release Khader Adnan on the 62nd day of hunger strike, as well as prompting Palestinians everywhere to join the popular struggle against the occupation.
In the past, events such as this would cause the army to react with extreme measures of oppression against the village – night-time raids, arrests, curfews, etc. However, in recent years it seems that the greater part of Israel’s attempt to crush the annual special demonstrations has been aimed mostly at Israelis. This was also the case yesterday, as mass police and army forces were deployed to the Ni’lin checkpoint in order to intercept the bus and the cars on their way from Tel Aviv. Upon being recognized as activists (usually five in a car, none of them religious, hence probably not going to the nearby settlements), the Israelis had their IDs taken and registered, and were warned not to proceed to Bil’in through alternative roads, as the entire region has been declared a closed military zone.
This was but one part of a well coordinated operation: all roads leaving highway 443 into Palestinian villages were blocked and guarded with riot police. A bus leaving Jerusalem was intercepted en-route, ten activists on it arrested, and the bus sent back. Private cars were turned back in others checkpoints, and while several managed to slip through – some had to give up on the demonstration. The bus from Tel Aviv eventually unloaded in the middle of highways 443, and activists climbed a hill and marched through olive groves to nearby villages, where they took taxis to Bil’in, dodging army patrols. The bus driver was arrested shortly after, without cause, only to be released later in the evening.
As a result of the police’s actions, only some 60-70 percent of the 200 Israelis who set off to join the demonstration actually managed to get there, and fulfill their basic right to protest. As all this did not even slightly change the nature of the demonstration, which was very similar to the regular weekly demonstrations, one might wonder why Israel would go to such great lengths to prevent Israelis coming to this specific demonstration.
A possible answer to this question was offered by Noam Sheizaf, who at the end of the demonstration assessed that the whole point of the police actions was to prevent “regular” Israelis – as opposed to the die-hard activists who travel to the West Bank weekly – from meeting with Palestinians. “This policy is all about forcing Israelis to visit the occupied territories and meet Palestinians only as enemies”, Sheizaf told me. “The popular committee went to great lengths to invite people like myself here – sending e-mails, opening a Facebook event, etc. – and the police went to great lengths to prevent me from taking the very basic step of showing solidarity with the village.
The struggle continues
Those who made it to Bil’in joined some internationals and hundreds of Palestinians from the village and the region, and marched from the village center to the route of the old fence, now dismantled, where speeches were made. From there demonstrators marched to the new wall, with activists wearing Khader Adnan masks and prison service uniforms leading the way. A leader in the popular committee mentioned that while no-one in the committee is a member of Islamic Jihad, they are all in support of Adnan, who joined in the past a demonstration in the village in 2005.
Once at the wall, several demonstrators were able to cross the barbed wire protecting it, and put up pictures of Adnan and Palestinian flags on the wall. It wasn’t long before the army started shooting tear gas and spraying the demonstration with ghastly “skunk” water, which resulted in the gradual retreat of the majority of demonstrators and the beginning of stone-throwing by the village youth. The demonstration ended after two hours in atypical cold winds and little rain, with no serious injuries or arrests. As usual, demonstrations also took place in Ni’lin, Ma’asara, Qadum, Nabi-Saleh and other villages."
The march drew its participants from a wide range of Palestinian national parties, as well as populations from the neighboring villages and members of the Popular Committees in the governorate of Ramallah and Al Bireh.
Lia Tarachansky http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100199779588109.2497243.120805103
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.372564432753867.96276.136633479680298
Shosh Rappaport http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.315226898516927.80959.100000888597910
http://yfrog.com/oel2jmij
http://t.co/M4kRye3T
Rani Abdel Ftah http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3384118124882.307092.1327358013
Israel Putterman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6iJGzz7oTk
David Reeb http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDwvD9wYUh4
Ofer concentration camp
Tuesday, Joint solidarity protest with Khader Adnan. 1 shot by rubber coated steel bullets, arrested and beaten, 10 more injured during the support demo.
yisraelputerman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMoV4pvWJ6o
Jerusalem-Al-Kuds
This Friday,
1. A Demonstration in Issawiya: stopping the Mt. Scopus Slopes National Park
Last Friday, in stormy weather, dozens of residents from Issawiya and A-Tour held a prayer in the observatory overlooking the designated park, and we joined them in a march protesting the plan to establish a National Park on their private lands. Over a hundred people walked through A-Tour in yet another step in bringing the issue to public attention.
This week, Israelis and the residents of Issawiya and A-Tour continue in a joint effort to prevent the establishment of the national park, and expose the political agenda motivating some members of the Nature and Parks Authority.
2. 15:00: demonstration in Sheikh Jarrah
Ma'asara
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.372621149414862.96290.136633479680298
Nabi Saleh
Activist report 5 Israeli Occupation Forces jeeps in the center of Nabi Saleh, near the village's mosque. IOF firing large quantities of teargas.
Activists are reporting that the weather is stormy in Nabi Saleh. Nabi Saleh youth have blocked the road with big rocks to try and prevent IOF reaching the village. IOF have attempted to spray unarmed demonstrators with skunk but apparently the weather is so windy it is not reaching the protestors.
Nabi Saleh: IOF started firing tear gas massively, still firing steel rubber-coated bullets too.
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.372659439411033.96298.136633479680298
http://t.co/WZwTegO1
Ni'ilin
Friday 17/2/2012
Popular resistance in Ni'ilin revived: Dozens protest the Wall and settlements
Protesting at the Western end of the Wall, residents of Ni'ilin are once again met with army violence and repression.
Some 50 residents of Ni'ilin, joined by a handful of Israeli and international supporters, joined the weekly demonstration against the Wall and settlements. The demonstration took place on the Western side of the village, an area where the wall becomes a fence and where demonstrators and soldiers can directly see one and other. Protesters chanted slogans demanding the return of Ni'ilin's lands as well as the protesting the illegality of Israel's occupation and burned tires near the fence. The army responded with a relentless cloud of tear gas.
The residents of Ni'ilin began organizing when construction of the Wall first began in 2004. While a court injunction temporarily delayed the theft of village lands, protests were renewed in 2008, as the construction of the Wall started to materialize. Five unarmed demonstrators have been killed by Israeli crowd control measures. Of the five killed, one was a child and two were aged 18. In 2008, American activist Tristan Anderson was shot in the head with a high velocity tear gas canister and permanently paralyzed. In an attempt to crush the demonstrations, Israel has built a section of concrete eight meter high wall in the village of Ni’ilin. This has not happened in other villages that are actively resisting the wall.
daboosphotogaraphy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTnUQ8xFolU
Nilinvillage http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTVb0bUygFQ
Qaddum
About three hundred Palestinians, Israelis and international walked toward the road.
Kadom procession accompanied by singing and a lot of joy. We got up to barbed wire spool
approximately 40 meters from the soldiers who after few minutes started showering us with clouds of gas clouds. One Palestinian was wounded in the leg by tear gas canister which probably broke his leg. Kadom's wonderful shabab responded as usual by their fight back. After a pause the Israeli state powers started again throwing gas and entered the village.
The gas enters into the houses. Soon they started firing bullets wrapped with rubber. Andrei was slightly wounded in the leg, but no real harm. Two Palestinians were also injured by rubbed bullets in their legs and were rushed to Qalqilya hospital. We wish them fast recovery. Then when the rain began towards the end of the demonstration we Dispersed.
1 protester was injured in Kufer Qaddum as soldiers invaded village to suppress demo.
Haim Schwarczenberg http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3384475289979.2163053.1212414101
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.372735369403440.96311.136633479680298
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Don’t say we did not know #299
For some time now , the Palestinians of Kafr a-Dik, situated west of Salfit, have demonstrated against the robbery of their land by Israel .
A new settlement called Leshem was inaugurated on their land – under the claim that it’s merely the extension of an older settlement, called Aley Zahav. The lorries that are building the new neighborhood pass through privately owned land – an olive grove – of a resident of Kafr a-Dik, instead of via the settlement. The resident appealed to the Supreme Court, so that it would stop the lorries’ passage through her land. The state’s answer was that it acknowledges the ownership, but still requests passage through the land.
Ever since the demonstrations started, the IDF has blocked the western access road to the village…
Questions & queries: amosg@shefayim.org.il
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See http://awalls.org
See Previous reports about the joint struggles of the Anarchists Against the Wall at: http://ilanisagainstwalls.blogspot.com
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