The village Immatin is another front of struggle against the separation fence. This Thursday, the Israeli army suppressed viciously a joint demonstration of Palestinians, internationals, Israeli anarchists and others. This morning 300 people started a march from Immatin situated between Imanuel and Kdumim in protest of the separation fence that intend to annex to Israel the colonial settlements of Imanuel and Kdumim which are situated about 15 kilometers from the 1948/67 green line border. After marching of only 100 meters - still about 3 kilometers from the route of the fence, the army blocked the people with a huge amount of tear gas. They ordered loudly the demonstrators to retreat.... though even those who wanted to could not because of the tear gas.
Rubber bullets were added to the tear gas including shooting on on palestinian ambulance. At the first wave there were injured 16 three of them were hit by tear gas grenades and canisters.
Later, the number of injured climbed to 31 - including an Israeli female activist who were hit in the leg and taken by the Palestinian ambulance to an hospital in Khalkilia, and press agency AP photographer who was hit in the head with a rubber bullet and was treated at the site.
Three Israelis were arrested and taken to the Kdumim police station and will probably accused in breaking of an army general about closed zone.. or just for illegal assembly.
Few hours after the dispersing of the demonstration, the army invaded the village with few battle cars, patrolling the village and shooting rubber bullets and tear gas canisters, beating Palestinians, threatening with live ammunition. The army forces even invaded to the girls school.
The tree Israelis will probably stay for the night in the Ariel police station.
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Monday, July 11, 2005
Palestine-Israel, Bil'in 8/7/05 +, Alt. Media, another take, The Onions Were Needed - protesting in Bil'in and Tel-Aviv 11 Jul
The army knew we were coming - which is not surprising, since the people of Bil'in had been demonstrating every Friday for the past several months, and Israeli activists are every week coming to join them. Moreover, for today - the anniversary of the ruling by the International Court in the Hague (which Sharon is violating with impunity) a particularly intensive mobilizing effort was made by various Israeli groups, a lot of phone calls were made and email messages sent out, and also the weekly Gush Shalom ad in Ha'aretz contained a call upon supporters to come to Bil'in.
An armoured jeep was parked across the road, and in front of it were five soldiers and an officer. Quite sufficient to block any vehicle - but we have left our bus inconspicuously parked near the giant settlement of Kiryat Sefer (whose constant expansion is the main cause of Bil'in's plight) and continued on foot, easily by-passing the blockading soldiers. The lieutenant could be clearly heard, speaking into his communicator: "Too many people, sir, we could do nothing"...
Up the ridge, through a bramble-filled field, and down the other side under the July sun. The young anarchists who carry out the anti-war struggle, week in and week out, were today joined by other Israelis as well as by visiting members of a Dutch squatter community, with much experience of tangling with the Amsterdam police.
From the hilltop we could see the jeep speeding along the narrow track, to get ahead of us and cut off our descent. Soldiers, shouting "Closed military zone, advance no further!" tried to detain random member of the group. They were met with calls of "I'm an Israeli citizen, you soldiers have no right to arrest me! Only a policeman can do that!".
This legal distinction was made decades ago, mainly to benefit the settlers. The lieutenant had to let us proceed, a look of anger and frustration on his face.
At the main square of Bil'in, there were already hundreds of villagers gathered. The Jerusalem contingent - including many Arab Israeli students from the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus - was already there, having also successfully avoided the army patrols. The well-known Tel-Avivian artist David Reeb walked around, busily taking in the scene on his video camera.
Bil'in organizer Rateb Abu Rahma, for whose release from detention we had recently conducted a widespread campaign, had ominous news: "Yesterday, Abdulla [Rateb's brother, also just released from detention] was suddenly summoned to a meeting with a Shabak operative. He threatened that if we continue our struggle, the same will happen here as at Bidu". In Bidu, as everyone on the West Bank knows, the army had killed five anti-wall demonstrators some months ago.
"We are not alone. We have you from Israel with us, and the internationals, and all the Palestinians - the leadership and the people on the ground." Rateb had in his hand the new resolution of the National Committee Against the Apartheid Wall: "The heroic village of Bil'in so far conducted forty-five demonstrations of protest against the ongoing theft of their land (...) The International Community must take firm steps to make Sharon submit to International Law and the ruling of the International Court, which declared the Wall illegal".
Muhammad Elias (Abu Elias) of the committee, whom we knew from previous meetings, introduced the many VIPs who came to Bil'in to walk in the front row of today's procession. There were legislators, former and present ministers, a presidential candidate, senior officials of various civic groups - representing the entire Palestinian political spectrum, from the ruling Fatah party to the Islamic opposition and the smaller groupings in between, both those with a decades-long history in the PLO and those which sprung up during recent struggles.
The event provided also a rare opportunity to talk with such a person as Sheik Hassan Yusuf, accounted the senior Hamas leader on the West Bank. As he speaks only Arabic, Fares Kadura, former Palestinian Authority Minister for Prisoner Affairs, volunteered to act as interpreter.
(...) "We are glad of this chance to meet and talk, Sheik Yusuf. In our view, a strong and lasting peace needs to include the Palestinians who support Hamas, as it needs to include the Israelis who support Likud".
"At this moment, the entire Palestinian people is willing to give Israel a chance - all Palestinians including Hamas. But Sharon does not want it, he just wants our land. He intends to get out of Gaza just in order to increase the land grab on the West Bank. What is going on here in Bil'in is a good example." "We completely agree about Sharon and his intentions. But the Israelis who vote for him, the grassroots Likud supporters, don't really care about the West Bank. Today most of them accept Sharon's withdrawal from Gaza. If tomorrow another PM would withdraw from the West Bank, they will likely accept that, too." "Insh'allah!" (The last world, meaning "let that be Allah's will" needed no translation, as it had long since passed into colloquial Hebrew).
The march started. The creative Bil'in villagers, who on previous occasions came up with such innovative props as cages, barrels and mock tombstones, had made something new for today: the enormous "Scales of Injustice", carried at the front of the procession, in which the ball wrapped with an Israeli flag heavily outweighed the entire terrestrial globe - with the balance held, as in the actual diplomatic arena, by Uncle Sam.
It was not far to go at all, marching among the village houses, with small children waving from windows and balconies, and out into the fields and olive groves scarred with months of the bulldozers' work. A clear indication of how little would be left of Bil'in's land once the Wall goes up. There, as on every Friday, the soldiers were waiting.
The local commander had evidently set the scene with some care. A roll of barbed wire blocked the road. Just behind it, a wooden notice board had been set up: "Under my authority as military commander in Judea and Samaria, I hereby declare the area delineated in the enclosed map a closed military zone,entry into which is forbidden except by special permit..." A considerable distance behind the barbed wire and the notice board stood the soldiers - a compact mass with conspicuous helmets and guns and plastic shields.
It was the great moment of Sheikh Tayseer Tamimi, head of the Muslim Courts in the Palestinian Territories - owing allegiance to Abu Mazen's Fatah Party. With perfect aplomb, wearing his resplendent robes of office, he moved aside the barbed wire, gracefully entered the forbidden zone, spread out a beautiful prayer rug, kneeled in the direction of Mecca and began praying. Hundreds of others followed suit, with villagers making do with carton placards to protect their knees and foreheads from the hot asphalt. The army's notice board, with its stern prohibition, was overturned, to also become an improvised prayer mat.
Non-Muslim demonstrators stayed respectfully back. Over the scene, the beautiful voice of a cantor virtually sang the Muslim credo, every word clearly enunciated - a solemn moment, also for those who feel little attraction to religion in general or Islam in particular. Even the soldiers on the other side seemed to feel it, staying quiet and stock-still during the entire prayer.
With the end of the religious part and the departure of many dignitaries, the lead was taken by more secularist Palestinian intellectuals and students, among whom Israelis and internationals freely mingled. The chanting constantly shifted between Arabic, Hebrew and English: "Listen Sharon, hear the proof - here we stand, we shall not move!", "The wall must fall - the wall will fall!" "No justice - no peace!", "No no occupation - yes yes liberation!", "Soldiers - whom are you guarding?", "Soldier, it's no use - you can just refuse!". The soldiers responded with occasional warnings of the "closed military zone".
Suddenly, a stone thrown from somewhere behind hit - not a soldier, but the back of the one of the demonstrators. Hundreds whirled around, shouting in three languages "No stones! No stones!". The stone-thrower, whoever he was, was nowhere to be seen. The demonstrators then turned back to the front for another round of chanting.
"We talked with the military commander" said an organizer, "We promised that soon we will move back quietly towards the village houses, and the soldiers will go the opposite way." For a moment, it seemed that for once a Friday protest at Bil'in would end without a violent confrontation. And then - just as a BBC reporter asked us for our evaluation of the about-finished action - the barrage began.
It was very heavy, even for Bil'in standards. Usually, one can try to outrun the tear gas canisters and get to a patch of clear air. This time the explosions were everywhere and the white clouds sprouted all around - front and back, left and right. Everywhere, people were coughing and cursing and reaching for the slices of onion which we had prepared in advance as the antidote.
To many of us the army's attack seemed competently unprovoked. Later, some people who were at the front rows told that somebody did provide the soldiers with a pretext - though their "reaction" was certainly overenthusiastic.
Individuals and small groups reached the relative shelter of the first village houses. And then, some village youths started back by roundabout routes, crouching behind any bit of cover, carrying stones, some armed with slings. The soldiers started shooting - no way of knowing if they were using live ammunition or "rubber" bullets (which at short range can also be lethal). Red Crescent ambulances went screeching, with sirens blazing, carrying more and more wounded - one in critical condition - to the hospital in Ramallah. It was no longer a demonstration, but a pitched battle.
Israeli radio, completely ignoring the earlier stages, reported "an outbreak of heavy rioting at Bil'in" and "the throwing of a molotov cocktail at soldiers". "That's a lie, our boys used nothing but stones" protested a village organizer. "It is the army's own concussion grenades which started the fire". Whatever the cause, a whole row of olive trees had caught fire and burned down, one more disaster for the family whose livelihood they were.
And just as things were at last settling down at Bil'in, horrifying news came from the village of Beit Likia, a few kilometres to the south-east. There - where no large-scale demonstration took place and there weren't any Israelis, internationals or distinguished Palestinians - a fifteen year old boy, Mahayoub Aasi, had just been shot to death, very near the spot where two of his cousins were killed a few weeks ago. Beit Likia is where the army has its car-park where the Wall bulldozers are kept during nights and weekend - a spot of fatal attraction to the local young...
***
Saturday evening outside the Defence Ministry in Tel-Aviv, the dreary site of so many protests over the past three decades. Across the street from the locked gate of the occupation army's nerve center, more than a hundred activists have gathered in short order at the call of Ta'ayush, Gush Shalom and the Anarchists, as well as the students and lecturers of "The Campus is Not Silent" at Tel-Aviv University. More and more people continue to arrive every moment.
"Murderers, murderers - out of the territories!" rises the chant out of the ragged picket line. "An easy hand on the trigger" say the placards, and "A Palestinians child has a mother, too" and "Stop the killing, stop the occupation" and "This Wall is killing us all". A lone TV crew, from the Channel 10 News, takes footage which would be briefly broadcast later in the evening. (News editors at the other networks were not interested.)
Suddenly an activist comes on the scene, directly back from the funeral in Beit Likia, with a bundle of newly-printed Palestinian posters: the face of Mahayoub Aasi (looking far younger than fifteen) on a background composed of the Wall and of Jerusalem's the Al-Aqusa Mosque. They are distributed, to be held aloft by Israeli demonstrators on this Tel-Aviv street.
"After the funeral, Beit Likia villagers went to the spot where the boy was killed. The army opened fire again" the activist said. "A twelve-year old, the main witness to what happened yesterday, was hit in the head by a rubber bullet and taken to the hospital. And one of the wounded Bil'in demonstrators is to undergo urgent brain surgery at Mukasad Hospital, to stop the internal bleeding. He might not last the night".
Demonstrators again take up the chant of "Murderers! Assassins!". Across the street, the lone uniformed guard at the ministry gate goes into his hut, closing the door behind him.
Meanwhile, the 18-year old Saul Berger - who recently got his call-up order for August 15, when he will refuse to enlist and presumably go to military prison - is circulating among the demonstrators with yet another emergency brewing up: "The bulldozers started working at the land of villages around the settlement of Immanuel, far more north. The people urgently ask for our help. Who can go there tomorrow morning?"
The struggle continues.
For information on the ongoing anti-wall protests contact:
Yonatan Pollak Photos of the Tel-Aviv protest at w w w . g u s h . s h a l o m - o r g [remove the spaces]
An armoured jeep was parked across the road, and in front of it were five soldiers and an officer. Quite sufficient to block any vehicle - but we have left our bus inconspicuously parked near the giant settlement of Kiryat Sefer (whose constant expansion is the main cause of Bil'in's plight) and continued on foot, easily by-passing the blockading soldiers. The lieutenant could be clearly heard, speaking into his communicator: "Too many people, sir, we could do nothing"...
Up the ridge, through a bramble-filled field, and down the other side under the July sun. The young anarchists who carry out the anti-war struggle, week in and week out, were today joined by other Israelis as well as by visiting members of a Dutch squatter community, with much experience of tangling with the Amsterdam police.
From the hilltop we could see the jeep speeding along the narrow track, to get ahead of us and cut off our descent. Soldiers, shouting "Closed military zone, advance no further!" tried to detain random member of the group. They were met with calls of "I'm an Israeli citizen, you soldiers have no right to arrest me! Only a policeman can do that!".
This legal distinction was made decades ago, mainly to benefit the settlers. The lieutenant had to let us proceed, a look of anger and frustration on his face.
At the main square of Bil'in, there were already hundreds of villagers gathered. The Jerusalem contingent - including many Arab Israeli students from the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus - was already there, having also successfully avoided the army patrols. The well-known Tel-Avivian artist David Reeb walked around, busily taking in the scene on his video camera.
Bil'in organizer Rateb Abu Rahma, for whose release from detention we had recently conducted a widespread campaign, had ominous news: "Yesterday, Abdulla [Rateb's brother, also just released from detention] was suddenly summoned to a meeting with a Shabak operative. He threatened that if we continue our struggle, the same will happen here as at Bidu". In Bidu, as everyone on the West Bank knows, the army had killed five anti-wall demonstrators some months ago.
"We are not alone. We have you from Israel with us, and the internationals, and all the Palestinians - the leadership and the people on the ground." Rateb had in his hand the new resolution of the National Committee Against the Apartheid Wall: "The heroic village of Bil'in so far conducted forty-five demonstrations of protest against the ongoing theft of their land (...) The International Community must take firm steps to make Sharon submit to International Law and the ruling of the International Court, which declared the Wall illegal".
Muhammad Elias (Abu Elias) of the committee, whom we knew from previous meetings, introduced the many VIPs who came to Bil'in to walk in the front row of today's procession. There were legislators, former and present ministers, a presidential candidate, senior officials of various civic groups - representing the entire Palestinian political spectrum, from the ruling Fatah party to the Islamic opposition and the smaller groupings in between, both those with a decades-long history in the PLO and those which sprung up during recent struggles.
The event provided also a rare opportunity to talk with such a person as Sheik Hassan Yusuf, accounted the senior Hamas leader on the West Bank. As he speaks only Arabic, Fares Kadura, former Palestinian Authority Minister for Prisoner Affairs, volunteered to act as interpreter.
(...) "We are glad of this chance to meet and talk, Sheik Yusuf. In our view, a strong and lasting peace needs to include the Palestinians who support Hamas, as it needs to include the Israelis who support Likud".
"At this moment, the entire Palestinian people is willing to give Israel a chance - all Palestinians including Hamas. But Sharon does not want it, he just wants our land. He intends to get out of Gaza just in order to increase the land grab on the West Bank. What is going on here in Bil'in is a good example." "We completely agree about Sharon and his intentions. But the Israelis who vote for him, the grassroots Likud supporters, don't really care about the West Bank. Today most of them accept Sharon's withdrawal from Gaza. If tomorrow another PM would withdraw from the West Bank, they will likely accept that, too." "Insh'allah!" (The last world, meaning "let that be Allah's will" needed no translation, as it had long since passed into colloquial Hebrew).
The march started. The creative Bil'in villagers, who on previous occasions came up with such innovative props as cages, barrels and mock tombstones, had made something new for today: the enormous "Scales of Injustice", carried at the front of the procession, in which the ball wrapped with an Israeli flag heavily outweighed the entire terrestrial globe - with the balance held, as in the actual diplomatic arena, by Uncle Sam.
It was not far to go at all, marching among the village houses, with small children waving from windows and balconies, and out into the fields and olive groves scarred with months of the bulldozers' work. A clear indication of how little would be left of Bil'in's land once the Wall goes up. There, as on every Friday, the soldiers were waiting.
The local commander had evidently set the scene with some care. A roll of barbed wire blocked the road. Just behind it, a wooden notice board had been set up: "Under my authority as military commander in Judea and Samaria, I hereby declare the area delineated in the enclosed map a closed military zone,entry into which is forbidden except by special permit..." A considerable distance behind the barbed wire and the notice board stood the soldiers - a compact mass with conspicuous helmets and guns and plastic shields.
It was the great moment of Sheikh Tayseer Tamimi, head of the Muslim Courts in the Palestinian Territories - owing allegiance to Abu Mazen's Fatah Party. With perfect aplomb, wearing his resplendent robes of office, he moved aside the barbed wire, gracefully entered the forbidden zone, spread out a beautiful prayer rug, kneeled in the direction of Mecca and began praying. Hundreds of others followed suit, with villagers making do with carton placards to protect their knees and foreheads from the hot asphalt. The army's notice board, with its stern prohibition, was overturned, to also become an improvised prayer mat.
Non-Muslim demonstrators stayed respectfully back. Over the scene, the beautiful voice of a cantor virtually sang the Muslim credo, every word clearly enunciated - a solemn moment, also for those who feel little attraction to religion in general or Islam in particular. Even the soldiers on the other side seemed to feel it, staying quiet and stock-still during the entire prayer.
With the end of the religious part and the departure of many dignitaries, the lead was taken by more secularist Palestinian intellectuals and students, among whom Israelis and internationals freely mingled. The chanting constantly shifted between Arabic, Hebrew and English: "Listen Sharon, hear the proof - here we stand, we shall not move!", "The wall must fall - the wall will fall!" "No justice - no peace!", "No no occupation - yes yes liberation!", "Soldiers - whom are you guarding?", "Soldier, it's no use - you can just refuse!". The soldiers responded with occasional warnings of the "closed military zone".
Suddenly, a stone thrown from somewhere behind hit - not a soldier, but the back of the one of the demonstrators. Hundreds whirled around, shouting in three languages "No stones! No stones!". The stone-thrower, whoever he was, was nowhere to be seen. The demonstrators then turned back to the front for another round of chanting.
"We talked with the military commander" said an organizer, "We promised that soon we will move back quietly towards the village houses, and the soldiers will go the opposite way." For a moment, it seemed that for once a Friday protest at Bil'in would end without a violent confrontation. And then - just as a BBC reporter asked us for our evaluation of the about-finished action - the barrage began.
It was very heavy, even for Bil'in standards. Usually, one can try to outrun the tear gas canisters and get to a patch of clear air. This time the explosions were everywhere and the white clouds sprouted all around - front and back, left and right. Everywhere, people were coughing and cursing and reaching for the slices of onion which we had prepared in advance as the antidote.
To many of us the army's attack seemed competently unprovoked. Later, some people who were at the front rows told that somebody did provide the soldiers with a pretext - though their "reaction" was certainly overenthusiastic.
Individuals and small groups reached the relative shelter of the first village houses. And then, some village youths started back by roundabout routes, crouching behind any bit of cover, carrying stones, some armed with slings. The soldiers started shooting - no way of knowing if they were using live ammunition or "rubber" bullets (which at short range can also be lethal). Red Crescent ambulances went screeching, with sirens blazing, carrying more and more wounded - one in critical condition - to the hospital in Ramallah. It was no longer a demonstration, but a pitched battle.
Israeli radio, completely ignoring the earlier stages, reported "an outbreak of heavy rioting at Bil'in" and "the throwing of a molotov cocktail at soldiers". "That's a lie, our boys used nothing but stones" protested a village organizer. "It is the army's own concussion grenades which started the fire". Whatever the cause, a whole row of olive trees had caught fire and burned down, one more disaster for the family whose livelihood they were.
And just as things were at last settling down at Bil'in, horrifying news came from the village of Beit Likia, a few kilometres to the south-east. There - where no large-scale demonstration took place and there weren't any Israelis, internationals or distinguished Palestinians - a fifteen year old boy, Mahayoub Aasi, had just been shot to death, very near the spot where two of his cousins were killed a few weeks ago. Beit Likia is where the army has its car-park where the Wall bulldozers are kept during nights and weekend - a spot of fatal attraction to the local young...
***
Saturday evening outside the Defence Ministry in Tel-Aviv, the dreary site of so many protests over the past three decades. Across the street from the locked gate of the occupation army's nerve center, more than a hundred activists have gathered in short order at the call of Ta'ayush, Gush Shalom and the Anarchists, as well as the students and lecturers of "The Campus is Not Silent" at Tel-Aviv University. More and more people continue to arrive every moment.
"Murderers, murderers - out of the territories!" rises the chant out of the ragged picket line. "An easy hand on the trigger" say the placards, and "A Palestinians child has a mother, too" and "Stop the killing, stop the occupation" and "This Wall is killing us all". A lone TV crew, from the Channel 10 News, takes footage which would be briefly broadcast later in the evening. (News editors at the other networks were not interested.)
Suddenly an activist comes on the scene, directly back from the funeral in Beit Likia, with a bundle of newly-printed Palestinian posters: the face of Mahayoub Aasi (looking far younger than fifteen) on a background composed of the Wall and of Jerusalem's the Al-Aqusa Mosque. They are distributed, to be held aloft by Israeli demonstrators on this Tel-Aviv street.
"After the funeral, Beit Likia villagers went to the spot where the boy was killed. The army opened fire again" the activist said. "A twelve-year old, the main witness to what happened yesterday, was hit in the head by a rubber bullet and taken to the hospital. And one of the wounded Bil'in demonstrators is to undergo urgent brain surgery at Mukasad Hospital, to stop the internal bleeding. He might not last the night".
Demonstrators again take up the chant of "Murderers! Assassins!". Across the street, the lone uniformed guard at the ministry gate goes into his hut, closing the door behind him.
Meanwhile, the 18-year old Saul Berger - who recently got his call-up order for August 15, when he will refuse to enlist and presumably go to military prison - is circulating among the demonstrators with yet another emergency brewing up: "The bulldozers started working at the land of villages around the settlement of Immanuel, far more north. The people urgently ask for our help. Who can go there tomorrow morning?"
The struggle continues.
For information on the ongoing anti-wall protests contact:
Yonatan Pollak Photos of the Tel-Aviv protest at w w w . g u s h . s h a l o m - o r g [remove the spaces]
Sunday, July 10, 2005
Israel, Tel Aviv, Anarchist are not only Against The Wall - screening on the beach yesterday 10 Jul
Yesterday, Saturday night, after the joint demonstration of the anti occupation/fence coalition called by others the same day in front of the war compound, in which members of the anarchist against the wall were prominent, about 70-80 of us screened videos from the g8 demos, and our own activities in Palestine. It was organized during 10 days work, and happened on the narrow beach - near the promenade, the other side of and US embassy. We had some friction with four vans of the police who were afraid of direct action against the US embassy. Threatened us with "illegal assembly" and arrests... calmed only when we moved to the beach.
A comrade report:
"We had some technical difficulties but once solved the screening went well. A lot of people stopped by and watched. I think it's a good way to bring more people into the activities, and also show what's going on in the world, but not so much on tv.
The whole thing was pretty easy to set up. The equipment we used, in case anyone wants to do it again, was a projector, a generator, speakers, an amplifier, and a 3x7 meters fabric, working as a screen. All of it is available from people in the group, or other groups with similar ideas and ideology. E."
============================
The Tel Aviv promenade at Summer month Saturday evenings is a kind of bazaar.
A comrade report:
"We had some technical difficulties but once solved the screening went well. A lot of people stopped by and watched. I think it's a good way to bring more people into the activities, and also show what's going on in the world, but not so much on tv.
The whole thing was pretty easy to set up. The equipment we used, in case anyone wants to do it again, was a projector, a generator, speakers, an amplifier, and a 3x7 meters fabric, working as a screen. All of it is available from people in the group, or other groups with similar ideas and ideology. E."
============================
The Tel Aviv promenade at Summer month Saturday evenings is a kind of bazaar.
Saturday, July 9, 2005
Palestinian Civil Society Calls for Boycott, Divestment + Sanctions against Israel - Endorsed by The socialist organization in Israel/ Matspen* 09 Jul
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel to be continued Until it Complies with International Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights One year after the historic Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which found Israel's Wall built on occupied Palestinian territory to be illegal, Israel continues its construction of the colonial Wall with total disregard to the Court's decision. Thirty eight years into Israel's occupation of the Palestinian West Bank (including East Jerusalem), Gaza Strip and the Syrian Golan Heights, Israel continues to expand Jewish colonies. It has unilaterally annexed occupied East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights and is now de facto annexing large parts of the West Bank by means of the Wall. Israel is also preparing - in the shadow of its planned redeployment from the Gaza Strip - to build and expand colonies in the West Bank. Fifty seven years after the state of Israel was built mainly on land ethnically cleansed of its Palestinian owners, a majority of Palestinians are refugees, most of whom are stateless. Moreover, Israel's entrenched system of racial discrimination against its own Arab- Palestinian citizens remains intact.
In light of Israel's persistent violations of international law, and Given that, since 1948, hundreds of UN resolutions have condemned Israel's colonial and discriminatory policies as illegal and called for immediate, adequate and effective remedies, and Given that all forms of international intervention and peace-making have until now failed to convince or force Israel to comply with humanitarian law, to respect fundamental human rights and to end its occupation and oppression of the people of Palestine, and in view of the fact that people of conscience in the international community have historically shouldered the moral responsibility to fight injustice, as exemplified in the struggle to abolish apartheid in South Africa through diverse forms of boycott, divestment and sanctions; Inspired by the struggle of South Africans against apartheid and in the spirit of international solidarity, moral consistency and resistance to injustice and oppression, We, representatives of Palestinian civil society, call upon international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era. We appeal to you to pressure your respective states to impose embargoes and sanctions against Israel.
We also invite conscientious Israelis to support this Call, for the sake of justice and genuine peace.
These non-violent punitive measures should be maintained until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people's inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law by:
1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall;
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.
Endorsed by:
The Palestinian political parties, unions, associations, coalitions and organizations below represent the three integral parts of the people of Palestine: Palestinian refugees, Palestinians under occupation and Palestinian citizens of Israel.
Unions, Associations, Campaigns**
=======================
Ed. Notes:
* An antiauthoritarian anticapitalist revolutionary organization known mostly as "Matspen" - the journal it issued from the early 60s to the early 80s
** (list of 180 organizations was omitted)]
In light of Israel's persistent violations of international law, and Given that, since 1948, hundreds of UN resolutions have condemned Israel's colonial and discriminatory policies as illegal and called for immediate, adequate and effective remedies, and Given that all forms of international intervention and peace-making have until now failed to convince or force Israel to comply with humanitarian law, to respect fundamental human rights and to end its occupation and oppression of the people of Palestine, and in view of the fact that people of conscience in the international community have historically shouldered the moral responsibility to fight injustice, as exemplified in the struggle to abolish apartheid in South Africa through diverse forms of boycott, divestment and sanctions; Inspired by the struggle of South Africans against apartheid and in the spirit of international solidarity, moral consistency and resistance to injustice and oppression, We, representatives of Palestinian civil society, call upon international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era. We appeal to you to pressure your respective states to impose embargoes and sanctions against Israel.
We also invite conscientious Israelis to support this Call, for the sake of justice and genuine peace.
These non-violent punitive measures should be maintained until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people's inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law by:
1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall;
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.
Endorsed by:
The Palestinian political parties, unions, associations, coalitions and organizations below represent the three integral parts of the people of Palestine: Palestinian refugees, Palestinians under occupation and Palestinian citizens of Israel.
Unions, Associations, Campaigns**
=======================
Ed. Notes:
* An antiauthoritarian anticapitalist revolutionary organization known mostly as "Matspen" - the journal it issued from the early 60s to the early 80s
** (list of 180 organizations was omitted)]
Palestine-Israel, Persecution of demonstrators against the wall/fence continue - solidarity is needed 09 Jul
Last Friday was a joint demonstration against the fence in the village Mas'ha. Already at the beginning of the demonstration the participants (about 400 Palestinians and 50 Israelis according to Media) stumbled on barbed wire spool which was put across the road few hundreds meters of the fence route. In front of the barbed wire stood tens of soldiers and border police personal with batons ready. Part of the demonstrators passed the barbed wire and advanced towards the fence. They got in return beaten with the batons and 4 of them were arrested - including an international female activist, who was injured and taken to hospital. Two of the others were accused of entering the occupied territories in spite of the command of the general commanding the region and was banned from entering the whole region. One member of the Anarchists Against The Wall initiative (Kobi Snits) was beaten by a baton and was accused with assault of a policeman thus was held for the night in the Ariel police station and will be brought in front of a judge (at Rishon Letzion) at the end of Saturday.
The false accusation of demonstrators are part of the frantic efforts of the Israeli authorities to block the joint struggle of Israelis and Palestinians which put strict limit on the measures of repression they can apply when Israelis are participating.
Part of this efforts can be seen in the cases of the prominent activists like Jonathan Polak and Ezra Nawi who were banned from entering the whole of the occupied territories for a month.
Presence in court of people who can when Kobi will be brought before the judge will be both a worthy protest and have an influencing effect on the decision of the judge.
Every one who can come to the court house is invited to phone
Adar
=========================
See: (en) Palestine-Israel, The joint struggle against the fence expand
http://www.ainfos.ca/05/jul/ainfos00173.html
The false accusation of demonstrators are part of the frantic efforts of the Israeli authorities to block the joint struggle of Israelis and Palestinians which put strict limit on the measures of repression they can apply when Israelis are participating.
Part of this efforts can be seen in the cases of the prominent activists like Jonathan Polak and Ezra Nawi who were banned from entering the whole of the occupied territories for a month.
Presence in court of people who can when Kobi will be brought before the judge will be both a worthy protest and have an influencing effect on the decision of the judge.
Every one who can come to the court house is invited to phone
Adar
=========================
See: (en) Palestine-Israel, The joint struggle against the fence expand
http://www.ainfos.ca/05/jul/ainfos00173.html
Palestine-Israel, The joint struggle against the fence expand 09 Jul
After a while, Bil'in Friday joint demo of the Palestinians lost its "exclusiveness". However, it still draws most of the Israelis - Anarchist Against The Wall initiative and the wider Israely coalition against the separation fence of apartheid. This Friday, first "aniversary" for the international court in the Hague verdict against the fence we were in the demo about 300 participants including about 100 who came from Israel... Due to the simbolic day, in addition to the 60 from the Tel Aviv region, came people from Jerusalem and Haifa, including a group of Israeli Palestinian women who contributed a special content to the slogans and sctivities in the demo, and Palestinians from out of the Bil'in village.
Minor harasment on the way to Bil'in to part of the participants delayed the demo for an hour - alowing time for "socializin" of activists of all kinds. We started about 12:00 on the way to the fence building rote knowing we will be blocked at the last building of the village. At the head of the march we had a big model of the "scale of justice" in which on one side is the Israeli flag that measured as heavier than a world globus psitioned on the other side of the scale.
When we arrived at the fringe of the village, we found as usual in the last weeks, a barbed wire blocking the road, with soldiers, border police and special police personal assembled on the other side of the barbed wire.
First we sopped at the barbed wire not sure how it will develop. We shouted towards the state forces, took away the barbed wire line, and even invaded few metters beyond the forbiden line. Surprisingly, acts that started in previous Fridays assoult of the state forces and arrests of Israelis and Palestinians, caused only a lip service threats and declaration the area as closed zone for Israelis... and no one was arrested.
The demonstration was prolonged for a hour and a half - with a muslim praier in betwee while organizers succeeded to restrain the stone thrower youngsters. Afterwards, when we started to disperse in the direction of the center of the village, the youngsters started their attrition war with the state forces, who used the opportunity as excuse to harase the dispersing demonstrators. The mainly shoot at us tear gas, but added shock grenades and rubber bullets... and policeman from the elite sector "YASAM" even threw stones on Israeli demonstrators.
After about an hour of attrition war of stones against fire arms, with 5 wounded - includin one Palestinian taken in bad condition to hospital things calmed a bit, and the Israelis were assembled with people of the village commity to discuss the development of the jouint struggle in Bil'in.
=======MEDIA - Israel breaks up demos against West Bank barrier======
Fri Jul 8,10:45 AM ET
BILIN, West Bank (AFP) - Israeli soldiers broke up protests against the vast barrier Israel is building in the occupied West Bank, on the eve of the first anniversary of a world court decision against the fence.
Around 500 Israeli, Palestinian and foreign peace activists demonstrated in the northern West Bank village of Bilin, where they clashed with Israeli troops monitoring the protest, an AFP correspondent said Friday.
Soldiers fired tear gas and rubber bullets as demonstrators threw stones.
[The usual lie. Nearly always, the firs stone throwing and more so the attrition war between the youngsters "shabab", starts only after the state force disperce the entirely nonviolend demonstration. I.S.]
The army subsequently declared the area a closed military zone.
The huge security barrier being built around Bilin encroaches on more than two kilometres (one mile) of village land, which is home to 1,700 residents.
Further north, around 400 Palestinians joined 50 Israeli and foreign activists to demonstrate at a barrier building site in Masha village.
[Mas'ha joint camp of Israelis and Palestinians which began april 2003, built the intimate relations between the Israeli anarchists and villagers who wanted to use nonviolent struggle against the fence. It took few months till the first joint assult on the fence at Dabuba, brought the joint struggle to the lime-light. I.S]
A foreigner and a soldier were injured, with two Israeli activists arrested, as soldiers moved to break up the protest, witnesses said.
Demonstrators carried a symbolic coffin draped in the blue UN flag to mourn the "death" of last year's world court ruling against the barrier.
Israel insists the separation barrier is necessary to prevent infiltrations by West Bank militants, but the Palestinians have branded it an attempt to grab their land and undermine the viability of their promised state.
[Last round in the procession of contests of the route by Palestinians, at the "high court of justice" the Israeli state "admited" first time that the decision about the route is influenced "also" by political reasons ond not only "security". I.S]
Last July, The Hague-based International Court of Justice issued a non-binding ruling saying that parts of the barrier built on Palestinian land are illegal.
Although Israel has since re-routed the fence in some stretches, the government has vowed to complete the project, which is eventually expected to stretch around 650 kilometres (406 miles).
=========MEDIA: Palestinian Killed in Anti-Fence Protest=========
Jonathon Pollack of Anarchists Against the Wall told The Jerusalem Post that the demonstrations this week were meant to mark the one-year anniversary of the International Court of Justice's ruling the separation fence illegal.
Palestinian killed in anti-fence protest
A 17-year-old Palestinian youth was shot dead on Friday afternoon by a security guard at a security fence construction site near the village of Beit Lakiya, west of Ramallah.
The shooting came after several youths threw stones at a number of guards. The suspected shooter was arrested and his weapon was confiscated.
Palestinian hospital staff named the dead boy as Mahyoub Assi, 16, and said he was from the same clan as two 17-year-olds shot dead in May while stoning soldiers at the same spot, near the West Bank village of Beit Lakiya.
Earlier, around 300 left-wing activists and Palestinians protesting the construction of the fence in the West Bank clashed with security forces.
A policeman was wounded in the fray after a rock was thrown at his back. He was evacuated for treatment.
Soldiers fired tear gas, rubber bullets, and stun grenades at the protestors, who were throwing rocks at them, Israel Radio reported.
The demonstrations were being held in two locations - in Bil'in, where they occur every Friday, and in the village of Mascha.
The demonstrators claimed that seven people were wounded in their ranks, including an Israeli hit in the ear by a stun grenade and a Palestinian shot in the head by a rubber bullet at close range. Five of the wounded were taken to nearby hospitals, according to the protestors.
Jonathon Pollack of Anarchists Against the Wall told The Jerusalem Post that the demonstrations this week were meant to mark the one-year anniversary of the International Court of Justice's ruling the separation fence illegal.
Participating in Friday's protests were a number of Palestinian officials, including presidential candidate Mustafa Barghouti, head of Hamas in the West Bank Hassan Yousef, and the Islamic Jihad spokesperson in the West Bank.
Four people were arrested in the clashes.
Minor harasment on the way to Bil'in to part of the participants delayed the demo for an hour - alowing time for "socializin" of activists of all kinds. We started about 12:00 on the way to the fence building rote knowing we will be blocked at the last building of the village. At the head of the march we had a big model of the "scale of justice" in which on one side is the Israeli flag that measured as heavier than a world globus psitioned on the other side of the scale.
When we arrived at the fringe of the village, we found as usual in the last weeks, a barbed wire blocking the road, with soldiers, border police and special police personal assembled on the other side of the barbed wire.
First we sopped at the barbed wire not sure how it will develop. We shouted towards the state forces, took away the barbed wire line, and even invaded few metters beyond the forbiden line. Surprisingly, acts that started in previous Fridays assoult of the state forces and arrests of Israelis and Palestinians, caused only a lip service threats and declaration the area as closed zone for Israelis... and no one was arrested.
The demonstration was prolonged for a hour and a half - with a muslim praier in betwee while organizers succeeded to restrain the stone thrower youngsters. Afterwards, when we started to disperse in the direction of the center of the village, the youngsters started their attrition war with the state forces, who used the opportunity as excuse to harase the dispersing demonstrators. The mainly shoot at us tear gas, but added shock grenades and rubber bullets... and policeman from the elite sector "YASAM" even threw stones on Israeli demonstrators.
After about an hour of attrition war of stones against fire arms, with 5 wounded - includin one Palestinian taken in bad condition to hospital things calmed a bit, and the Israelis were assembled with people of the village commity to discuss the development of the jouint struggle in Bil'in.
=======MEDIA - Israel breaks up demos against West Bank barrier======
Fri Jul 8,10:45 AM ET
BILIN, West Bank (AFP) - Israeli soldiers broke up protests against the vast barrier Israel is building in the occupied West Bank, on the eve of the first anniversary of a world court decision against the fence.
Around 500 Israeli, Palestinian and foreign peace activists demonstrated in the northern West Bank village of Bilin, where they clashed with Israeli troops monitoring the protest, an AFP correspondent said Friday.
Soldiers fired tear gas and rubber bullets as demonstrators threw stones.
[The usual lie. Nearly always, the firs stone throwing and more so the attrition war between the youngsters "shabab", starts only after the state force disperce the entirely nonviolend demonstration. I.S.]
The army subsequently declared the area a closed military zone.
The huge security barrier being built around Bilin encroaches on more than two kilometres (one mile) of village land, which is home to 1,700 residents.
Further north, around 400 Palestinians joined 50 Israeli and foreign activists to demonstrate at a barrier building site in Masha village.
[Mas'ha joint camp of Israelis and Palestinians which began april 2003, built the intimate relations between the Israeli anarchists and villagers who wanted to use nonviolent struggle against the fence. It took few months till the first joint assult on the fence at Dabuba, brought the joint struggle to the lime-light. I.S]
A foreigner and a soldier were injured, with two Israeli activists arrested, as soldiers moved to break up the protest, witnesses said.
Demonstrators carried a symbolic coffin draped in the blue UN flag to mourn the "death" of last year's world court ruling against the barrier.
Israel insists the separation barrier is necessary to prevent infiltrations by West Bank militants, but the Palestinians have branded it an attempt to grab their land and undermine the viability of their promised state.
[Last round in the procession of contests of the route by Palestinians, at the "high court of justice" the Israeli state "admited" first time that the decision about the route is influenced "also" by political reasons ond not only "security". I.S]
Last July, The Hague-based International Court of Justice issued a non-binding ruling saying that parts of the barrier built on Palestinian land are illegal.
Although Israel has since re-routed the fence in some stretches, the government has vowed to complete the project, which is eventually expected to stretch around 650 kilometres (406 miles).
=========MEDIA: Palestinian Killed in Anti-Fence Protest=========
Jonathon Pollack of Anarchists Against the Wall told The Jerusalem Post that the demonstrations this week were meant to mark the one-year anniversary of the International Court of Justice's ruling the separation fence illegal.
Palestinian killed in anti-fence protest
A 17-year-old Palestinian youth was shot dead on Friday afternoon by a security guard at a security fence construction site near the village of Beit Lakiya, west of Ramallah.
The shooting came after several youths threw stones at a number of guards. The suspected shooter was arrested and his weapon was confiscated.
Palestinian hospital staff named the dead boy as Mahyoub Assi, 16, and said he was from the same clan as two 17-year-olds shot dead in May while stoning soldiers at the same spot, near the West Bank village of Beit Lakiya.
Earlier, around 300 left-wing activists and Palestinians protesting the construction of the fence in the West Bank clashed with security forces.
A policeman was wounded in the fray after a rock was thrown at his back. He was evacuated for treatment.
Soldiers fired tear gas, rubber bullets, and stun grenades at the protestors, who were throwing rocks at them, Israel Radio reported.
The demonstrations were being held in two locations - in Bil'in, where they occur every Friday, and in the village of Mascha.
The demonstrators claimed that seven people were wounded in their ranks, including an Israeli hit in the ear by a stun grenade and a Palestinian shot in the head by a rubber bullet at close range. Five of the wounded were taken to nearby hospitals, according to the protestors.
Jonathon Pollack of Anarchists Against the Wall told The Jerusalem Post that the demonstrations this week were meant to mark the one-year anniversary of the International Court of Justice's ruling the separation fence illegal.
Participating in Friday's protests were a number of Palestinian officials, including presidential candidate Mustafa Barghouti, head of Hamas in the West Bank Hassan Yousef, and the Islamic Jihad spokesperson in the West Bank.
Four people were arrested in the clashes.
Wednesday, July 6, 2005
Palestain-Israel, M'nazil, Bil'in, the joint struggle continue even when the anarchists are blocked 06 Jul
Five were arrested in the demonstration against the separation at M'nazil. The popular protest and struggle against the apartheid fence spread to the south of Hebron mountains region - and with it the violent suppression by the army. 5 were arrested in M'nazil Wednesday, after demonstrators mounted on a bulldozer and disturbed the works. This time, again, declaring the region as military closed area, state forces succeeded to prevent the people of the anarchists against the wall initiative from arriving.
However, the people of the tinny village with international activists did it. The small village, adjacent to the Beit-Yatir colonial settlement and to the updated and "more humanist" route of the fence is isolated from other Palestinian villages.
In spite problems, the demonstration did happened, with the participation of few international peace activists - this report is based of report of one of them. During the demonstration the people got hold of the bulldozer who climbed on it and held high flags on it. Though demonstrators did no violent act, the army used excessive violence when dispersing them. The army force arrested Abu-Hatem - one of the main activists and the contact person for the Israelis. The other demonstrators tried to de-arrest him by sitting in front of one of the army vehicles... which resulted with more arrests adding to 5 - who were taken to the police station of Kiriat-Arba - the colonial settlement at the margin of Hebron.
"Celebrating" one year since the hague wall decision by international court by Kobi Snit
July 9th is the one year anniversary of the decision of the Permanent Court of International Justice at the Hague which ruled that “Construction of the wall and its associated regime are contrary to international law.”
Almost year later, the Israeli supreme court is about to issue a fundamental decision in which it will respond to the Hague decision (Ha'aretz 5-7-05). While the court was taking its time, construction of the wall has gone causing irreversible damage. While the court might not be relied on to consider the rights of Palestinians it is quite sensitive to its own image abroad. Consequently, there is a chance that the court will issue a useful decision. At issue are planned the segments of the wall around Ariel Immanuel and Karnei Shomron. Most strikingly, the state has recently admitted in the case of the village of Azune that the construction of the wall is based on other than just security concerns. Given this admission, if the court is to be consistent with its ruling from last year it will have to rule many more segments of the wall illegal.
This is a critical time for Israelis to demonstrate against the wall. To resist Shron's attempt to draw attention away from construction in the west bank during the disengagement. To support the courageous Palestinian non violent resistance and to pressure the supreme court.
Join the people of Bil'in this Friday at 11 am. Buses leave from Tel Aviv central train station, El-Al terminal at 9:00.
Please Call Mijal Greenberg to reserve a spot on the bus from Tel Aviv (before thursday at 9 pm!) and for details about transportation from Jerusalem.
However, the people of the tinny village with international activists did it. The small village, adjacent to the Beit-Yatir colonial settlement and to the updated and "more humanist" route of the fence is isolated from other Palestinian villages.
In spite problems, the demonstration did happened, with the participation of few international peace activists - this report is based of report of one of them. During the demonstration the people got hold of the bulldozer who climbed on it and held high flags on it. Though demonstrators did no violent act, the army used excessive violence when dispersing them. The army force arrested Abu-Hatem - one of the main activists and the contact person for the Israelis. The other demonstrators tried to de-arrest him by sitting in front of one of the army vehicles... which resulted with more arrests adding to 5 - who were taken to the police station of Kiriat-Arba - the colonial settlement at the margin of Hebron.
"Celebrating" one year since the hague wall decision by international court by Kobi Snit
July 9th is the one year anniversary of the decision of the Permanent Court of International Justice at the Hague which ruled that “Construction of the wall and its associated regime are contrary to international law.”
Almost year later, the Israeli supreme court is about to issue a fundamental decision in which it will respond to the Hague decision (Ha'aretz 5-7-05). While the court was taking its time, construction of the wall has gone causing irreversible damage. While the court might not be relied on to consider the rights of Palestinians it is quite sensitive to its own image abroad. Consequently, there is a chance that the court will issue a useful decision. At issue are planned the segments of the wall around Ariel Immanuel and Karnei Shomron. Most strikingly, the state has recently admitted in the case of the village of Azune that the construction of the wall is based on other than just security concerns. Given this admission, if the court is to be consistent with its ruling from last year it will have to rule many more segments of the wall illegal.
This is a critical time for Israelis to demonstrate against the wall. To resist Shron's attempt to draw attention away from construction in the west bank during the disengagement. To support the courageous Palestinian non violent resistance and to pressure the supreme court.
Join the people of Bil'in this Friday at 11 am. Buses leave from Tel Aviv central train station, El-Al terminal at 9:00.
Please Call Mijal Greenberg to reserve a spot on the bus from Tel Aviv (before thursday at 9 pm!) and for details about transportation from Jerusalem.
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