Israel-Palestine, Tel-Aviv-Jaffa, 22th October day against police brutality and solidarity of anarchists with the struggle in the region 22/10/04

As part of the international day of anarchists solidarity with the struggle in Palestine-Israel, Anarchists Against The Wall initiative called for a demo - in the context of the international day against police brutality. About 70 people came to the starting point of the demo in the Jaffa - the Jewish-Palestinian mixed population section of greater Tel-Aviv. We started the march with banners and placards against police brutality and against the WALL and similar themes, in an "unauthorized" demo. Police officers promised not to harass us if we will not try to block the traffic.... while accompanying our march they only nagged us to keep to the pavement. After about an hour march and leafleting in the main streets we arrived at the local police station.

The leaflet in both Hebrew and Arabic we distributed was starts with short descriptions of police brutality against poor people, immigrant workers, youth, Palestinians... up to killing with out being punished.

It continues: The blue* terror run rampage every night in our streets. The immigration authority is running a daily men hunting after illegal work immigrants boasting it already expelled 100,000 of them during the last 3 years. Beating, humiliation, jail and expulsion is the fate of people who tried to earn living for their families.

On October actions [2000 demonstration of solidarity of Israeli Palestinian citizens at the beginning of Intifada] police snipers murdered in cold blood 13 Palestinians their only crime was that they tried to protest against the treatment of second rate citizens in a Jewish racist state. The police claimed they learned their lesson [following a political scandal] but since that they already killed another 15 Israeli citizens Palestinians. Murderers have license to kill as long as they wear uniform. Foreign workers, Arabs, Beduins, homosexuals, new legal immigrants and every one not in accord with the system is suppressed by the state agencies.

6000 complains submitted against police personal on 2003 - but only 58 of them were on trial and just few of them were punished. The police people investigation authority cover up their friends and the state cover both - backing the real criminals.

The police officers that rule us on the streets and the soldiers that police the 3.5 Palestinians without rights in the occupied territories, suppress protest with gas grenades, metal bullets covered with rubber, and live ammunition, are the true face of the state behind the government lies, and the propaganda in the TV and news paper of the capitalists... More and more people begin to understand that the "law and order" is not for us.

The laws and the police protect the rich from the poor. The army protect the the occupation, the settlers and the racist Zionism. We do not obey because we believe in them - we obey because we are afraid from what they will do to us if we will not.

No one want to end in administrative detention like Taly Fahima [A young jewish woman who befriended with a wanted Palestinian rebel] ore die in a demo like the 6 Palestinians participated [in non-violent] demonstrations against the fence. Or just being beaten in the street by some hooligans in blue*
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Do not let the police terror to win
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Anarchists Against Fences @
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* [Blue is the color of the police uniform.]

Israel-Palestine, international day against police violence and solidarity with palestine, demo in Jaffa 20/10/04

Oct 22 is international day against police violence. from rome to new york people will be demonstrating against police abuse and in solidarity with the people of palestine. join us for a demo in Jaffa, this friday oct 22 at 12:30 in front of the gesher theater (jerusalem blv, on the tel aviv side)

see also
https://israel.indymedia.org/feature/display/1018/index.php
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The call for the demo was initiated by the Anarchists Against The Wall in association with the call of the Cretan (Greece) anarchists for 22 October international day of anarchists solidarity with the struggle in our region. Anarchist collectives of about 15 countries announced their participation in this solidarity initiative.
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From the leaflet:
22 October an international day against police brutality

Demonstration against police brutality

Solidarity with Palestinians and against the wall
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"When I see blood and muscle worker struggle with his/her natural enemy - the policeman, I do not need to ask myself on whose side I am"
George Orwell
There already arrived the time to stop the brutality of the wearer of uniform, whether police, IDF (army), immigration police officers, or general security service.
There is not a day without harassment, humiliation, false incrimination, beating, and "lawful" murder.

WE HAVE NO SECURITY IN THEIR POLICE STATE

Meeting in front of the "Gesher Theater" at the Jerusalem Blv., Jaffa. Friday 22/10 12:30 @

SOLIDARITY With every one harmed by police terror: work immigrants, Palestinians both within and out of the green line border, Beduins, queers, youth, workers, refusnics, the poor strata, the prisoners in jails, the homeless, the punkists....

Israel/Palestine: Materials for the 22 October solidarity actions 19/10/04

The FdCA has produced a special English-language version of its monthly news-sheet on the occasion of the international day of anarchist solidarity with the struggle in Palestine and the Israeli anarchists. "Alternativa Libertaria" is a 2-page PDF file and can be freely downloaded, printed and distributed by anarchist groups and organizations. You can find it at:
http://www.fdca.it/AL/ottobre04EN.pdf
This month's issue includes:
* Israeli Anarchists
* Anarchists in the world
* Peacefully Confronting the Wall in Budrus (see below)
* How much is this occupation costing us?
* We will not be stopped!!

We remind you also of the special 70-page pamphlet we have produced for the occasion: "We Are All Anarchists Against The Wall". This too can be freely downloaded and used.
Cover: http://www.fdca.it/wall/media/anarwall_EN_cover.pdf
Text: http://www.fdca.it/wall/media/anarwall_EN.pdf
Cover & Text zipped: http://www.fdca.it/wall/media/wall_english.zip


Italian versions are also available on the FdCA website.

* * * * *

Peacefully Confronting the Wall in Budrus

I live in Budrus, a village of 1,200 people, west of Ramallah. The Wall will completely surround Budrus and eight other villages, separating us from the rest of the West Bank. There are no hospitals, universities, or civil institutions in these nine villages, and many of the people work in Ramallah. The Wall will prevent thousands of Palestinians from going to work, school, universities, and hospitals. We already live in a prison, surrounded by settlements and checkpoints. So with the Wall, it will become a prison within a prison. As a young Palestinian woman, I dream of becoming a doctor. However, the Wall may prevent me from studying in a university.

On Nov 23rd, 2003, Wall construction started in Budrus and we immediately began holding peaceful demonstrations opposing it. The Israeli authorities planned to take 250 acres of Budrus' land and bulldoze our olive groves. The day construction began, the soldiers formed a line to prevent us from reaching the bulldozers, but I was able to cut through the line and sit in front of the bulldozer. We stopped Wall construction that day.

We protested peacefully for three months until March 1, when the Israeli authorities said they would move the Wall to the Green Line, so Budrus would not lose land. Recently, they told us that they still want to take 44 acres of our land, and Budrus and eight other villages will also still be surrounded by the Wall. So we will continue to struggle against the theft of our land.

Though our demonstrations were peaceful, the Israeli soldiers wounded 102 persons. They used sound bombs, teargas, and rubber-coated steel bullets, and beat men and women with clubs. In Biddu and Beitunia, villages near Jerusalem, Israeli soldiers killed six people during protests against the Wall. The Israeli military tried to stop Budrus' peaceful protests by arresting participants. Thirteen men from Budrus, including my father, two uncles, two cousins, and a 15-year-old classmate were arrested. The soldiers' violence scares me, but to make my dreams a reality I have to take part in the peaceful struggle against that Wall. Nonviolent resistance against the Wall requires everyone. Our entire community participated in protests, men with women, elders with children, and Palestinians with Israelis and internationals.

I had never dealt with Israelis as friends before. Israelis were always occupiers and soldiers. During the first demonstration I met three women who became my first Israeli friends. They believe the Wall will not bring them security, and they wish more Israelis would see what is happening on the ground. I now have many Israeli friends. A friendly relationship between Palestinians and Israelis is important, because I look to the future when there will be a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders next to Israel. Security and understanding requires friendship. Please support us in ending this oppressive Israeli military occupation of our land.

[From an article by Iltezam Morrar, aged 15, in The Electronic Intifada, 16 July 2004.]

* * * * *

FEDERAZIONE DEI COMUNISTI ANARCHICI
http://www.fdca.it

Israel, Tel Aviv, [Including Media reports,] the anarchists' day in court 19/10/04

Monday morning, 45 people of the Anarchists Against The Wall initiative, sympathizers and media, converged in the Tel-Aviv "peace Court" of state - (the lower level court for the less serious "offenses"). See: http://www.ainfos.ca/04/oct/ainfos00191.html (en) Israel-Palestine, We will not be stopped! No to the apartheid fence! no to the state violence! As preventive measure courthouse guards prevented comrades from entering if they wore shirts with slogans (including part of the 11 defendants... needed intervention of the judge to let them in. As the prosecution of the 11 defendants for such minor disturbance of traffic seemed so out of proportion - even the main media channels - dailies, public main radio and TV, included reported in a sympathy way.

The most extreme reservation of media from the state clumsy act of persecution was the including in the main public TV news a lengthy item - including the small demo in the court house in front of the chambers, the court house guards forcing its end, the speeches of both sympathizers and defendants.....

Israeli public opinion still insist on maximum democratic rights to the Israeli Jews - even when we struggle in support of the rights of the Palestinians - the trampling-on the same main stream media accept.

".... the sedate Magistrate's Court in Tel-Aviv got a whiff of the Wild West Bank atmosphere when eleven of the Anarchists Against Walls showed up to answer a variety of charges, ranging from holding an illegal demonstration to obstructing policemen and assaulting policemen* and up to "defacing real property" (i.e., writing graffiti). The charges all referred to a single event, lasting less than ten minutes, on the afternoon of February 25 this year - the day when the International Court at the Hague started deliberating on the construction by the Sharon Government of the Separation Wall which cuts through Palestinian villages and towns.

The Anarchists had planned to mark this day by a joint demonstration with the inhabitants of a village which lost most of its land because of the Wall/Fence. But the army and police got wind of these plans, and the group was intercepted at the West Bank border and forced to turn back - whereupon they drove directly to the Defense Ministry in Tel-Aviv, sat down on the street in front of its gates, and were immediately pounced upon by the police. One of beaten to the point of losing consciousness, another one needed to be hospitalized, and thirteen in all spent the night in detention.

On the following morning, the police asked the duty judge to keep them under house arrest "until the Hague Court ends its deliberations" but the Duty Judge rejected this idea and granted them bail.

It was then that the police and public prosecutor decided to prefer charges against them - leading to today's rather grotesque affair.

With a variety of tattoos and unconventional hair styles and accompanied by several sympathizing, well-known artists and actors, the accused young men and women stood in the court house lobby - displaying to the many media representatives their T-shirts with the text "We will not be silenced" and covering their mouths with strips of black sticky tape.

That was enough for the court house guards to snap into action, shout "No demonstrating on court premises" and push the offending activists into an empty courtroom, where they were made to take off the offending shirts (of which the TV cameras already got their fill, anyway). It took quite a bit before they finally made it to Judge Muki Landman's hall and sat down in the overcrowded dock, with the spectator benches equally crowded with their supporters.

Defence Lawyer Gabi Lasky began by asking the court to dismiss the charges out of hand, on the basis of Natural Law (or "estoppel" in lawyers' jargon). She began with a long exposition on the Wall and the way it disrupts the daily life of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, quoting extensively from the reports of various human rights organizations which she also presented to the court as evidence. Many judges would have rejected all this as irrelevant - Landman did not.

Adv. Laski made special reference to the inhabitants of the so-called "Seam Area", where the accused originally intended to demonstrate on February 25. "The Seam Area has been declared a closed military zone, where entry is forbidden. Even if you were born there and your parents before you, and even if you lived there all your life, you must apply for a special permit from the army in order to stay in your own home and work your own field.

But by the same military order, citizens of Israel are exempt and may enter the Seam Area without needing any permit. And not only Israeli citizens, also 'those who have the right to Israeli citizenship under the law of return', that is - Jews. Yes, a Jew from Brooklyn or from Timbuktu could land at Ben Gurion Airport, go to the Seam Area and stay there as long as he wants, without needing any permit - but a Palestinian who was born there needs a permit from the army to live in his own home!

It was against this kind of blatant injustice that the accused tried to protest, first in the Seam Area itself, then when this was denied at the Ministry of Defence where this infamous military order originated. They acted according to the Categorical Imperative of the great philosopher Immanuel Kant, according to which every person must act as if his and her life is setting the moral example for the whole world. They acted according to the Talmud, which states that a man would not be considered truly righteous, even if he followed all of God's commandmnents, if he had failed to cry out against an injustice of which he was aware. On the basis of Natural Law, the case against them should be dismissed".

"I will reserve my response to counsel's argument until later" responded Judge Landman. "But first I must draw the prosecution's attention to some obvious concrete defects in the charge sheet. For example, accused no.7 is accused of assaulting policemen, but there is no concrete act attributed to her which would substantiate that charge.* The same with accused no. 1 being charged with hindering a policeman in the execution of his duties. Exactly what did she do, Mr. Prosecutor? Sitting on the road for all of three minutes and refusing to get up when ordered by the policeman, that's hindering him in the execution of his duties? Hmmm.

And about the rest of them, in what did the assault on the police consist? "Kicking the police while being carried to the patrol car? Well, I suppose if you prove that they did do that, yes, it would technically count as assault. Still, I seem to recall that during the evacuation of Yamit and other Sinai settlements [in 1982] the settlers did quite a bit more than that, and none of them was prosecuted. A good thing, too. There should be toleration built into the prosecution policy, some leeway.

We are now entering a period of debate and controversy. We will have many demonstrations by many people and groups who have something very urgent to say, and I don't care if they are from the left-wing or right-wing, protesting the erection of the fence or the dismantling of settlements. From the policy of the prosecution in this case, I suppose we will see all of them marching into this court-room by the dozen. We may have to set up a special court for demonstrators, like there is already a special court for the deportation of migrantworkers. If that's what you want, fine!

Anyway, I am giving the prosecution 6 weeks to reconsider, do they really want to proceed with this case. If they still do, I will then state my ruling on the defence's request with regard to Natural Law. Until then, every body is dismissed."

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* Surprise surprise.... among the 11 defendants, all the ones who submitted complains to the police investigating bureau were accused also with assault while these not complaining got only the minor items.

Israel/Palesine: Booklet on the struggle against the Wall for 22 October day of international anarchist solidarity 17/10/04

On the occasion of the international day of anarchist solidarity on 22nd October 2004, the FdCA has prepared a 70-page booklet on the struggle against the Wall in Palestine. We invite anarchist groups, organizations and individuals to download the zipped PDF file of the pamphlet. It can then be printed and distributed during actions on 22nd October. The booklet is entirely in English, though an Italian version will be available from the FdCA in Italy. To download the pamphlet, please visit our web special http://www.fdca.it/wall and click on the link "scaricabili" at the top left.

Federazione dei Comunisti Anarchici
International Relations

Israel-Palestine, We will not be stopped! No to the apartheid fence! no to the state violence! 13/10/04

Posted by Anarchists Against the Wall 12 Oct 2004 on https://israel.indymedia.org/feature/index.php Monday, October the 18th will start the court hearing of 11 activists who demonstrated against the apartheid wall at the war ministry compound in Tel Aviv - 23d Februar 2004 - the day the international court in Hage started deliberation on the apartheid wall. That day tens of activists demonstrated in front of the War ministry compound and blocked the Kaplan street, in protest against the building of the separation fence by the Israeli government, after they were blocked from reaching the demo with Palestinian people in Tul karem area the fence seperate them from their fields, declared by authority as a "closed military zone".

Just few minutes it took the riot plolice to arrest 13 of the activist using excessive vilence documented by 4 video cameras. The video taype refute the police claim that a "police man was attaced while on duty", which is what the demonstrators are accused with.. after they submited formal complain to the "departmen investigating policemen" on the violence against them. One of the 13 arrested was even taken to hospital for treatment of seriously damaged nouse, another activist lost consciousness, a female activist was sexually harased while in castudy. The 13 demonstraters - one of them under-age, were detained for the night at the Abu-Kabir detention facility. Next day they were brought to court where the judge refused to follow the police demand to release them with conditions that will limit their right of demonstration in the future.

This was the first time of such bringing to court was taken agains "Anarchists Against The Fence" since the sooting at the Mas'ha village gate on 26.12.2003 when Gil Naamaty leggs were hit. Next month, starting the court hearing of other under age activists accused too with blocking streets in Tel Aviv. It seems this is the beginning of a chain of harasments and political presecution culminating in a urgent and substantial danger to the freedom of expression and demonstration in Israel.

Befor this demonstration and even after it were many tens of political and social demonstrations in which roads were blocked, but no court indaitments were done. Never before bothered the security service to send a representative to a police station - like with our people, to interogate and warn the dataynees.

We intend to transform the trial to a trail against the fence. With the help of supporters we will stand in the court processes and insist to convey the message for which we blocked the road: The apartheid fence will only lead to despair and haterad.

For details: Jonathan Polak
Lawyer Gaby Lasky:
The hearing begins in the morning of Mondey 18.10 9:00 in the "peace courthous" in Tel Aviv the hall of judge Landsman corner of Shderot Shaul Hamelekh and Witsman street.

Palestine-Israel, The daily struggle continue* - a different aspect. 13/10/04

The first sign that something has in Beit-Awwa changed, were the flags decorating the Baladia. Some familiar faces were also missing from the crowd preparing for the demonstration. One reason is that the demonstration today was organized by official village administration, as opposed to previous demonstrations which were organized by popular committees. Later, we would also learn that the army raided the village the day before and picked up people suspected of demonstrating. The reason for the decoration was an appearance by Abas Zaki, a member of the central committee of the Fatah and the Palestinian legislative council. He arrive at 10:25 and spoke for about 20 minutes along with other dignitaries. From there we marched to the Bulldozers who were working just north of the school. The crowd was about 150 people and the bulldozers stopped at the first sight of us. There was only one army jeep and about 5 private security for the three bulldozers.

Wishing to avoid injuries, the leaders of the demonstration worked out an agreement with the commanding officer that we would retreat after a while and not be attacked by the soldiers. Then, while watching them build a giant cage for the people of Beit-Awwa, Zaki made a speech which began with the words "IDF soldiers, good morning...". The soldiers took the opportunity to photograph the people listening to the speech with a digital camera. After the arrests of the previous day, taking someone's picture become a real threat. The private security also threatened the crowed in their own way. They pointed their uzis from close range and told people they would kill them.
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* see also:
Palestine-Israel, Report of Anarchists Against the Wall (AATW) about the days of resistance
http://ainfos.ca/04/sep/ainfos00429.html
See pictures at:
https://israel.indymedia.org/media/all/display/190/index.php to
https://israel.indymedia.org/media/all/display/199/index.php See also the call for international solidarity day of anarchists all over the world on October 22
(en) Greece, Crete, Proposal for an international day of solidarity to the Palestinian struggle
http://www.ainfos.ca/04/aug/ainfos00059.html (en) Israel-Palestine, Media:...................
http://ainfos.ca/04/sep/ainfos00359.html
http://ainfos.ca/04/sep/ainfos00366.html