Palestine-Israel, Media: State turns blind eye to illegal construction at ultra-Orthodox West Bank settlement on Bil'in lands 14 Dec

Because of international and internal conciderations, Israel state colonial settler projects are often done "unofficially" and often in an "illagal means" - by state officials of all levels. Most of these steps are usually out of the focus of the media or out of the media at all. The case of Bil'in is different. It is so because the joint struggle of the local comity for nonviolent struggle against the fence with the Israeli activists of the Anarchists Against The Wall initiative. The insistance on at least a joint Friday demonstration against the fence in Bil'in every week, with lot of creativity and publicity work did a difference. Just do a google search on Bil'in - and you will get "about 252,000 English pages for Bil'in" and a google search on "Bil'in or Bilin" + "Anarchists Against The Wall" will show about 46,300 English pages for "Anarchists Against The Wall" -Bil'in -Bilin.
I.S.

State turns blind eye to illegal construction at ultra-Orthodox West Bank settlement By Akiva Eldar

In the past year, the Palestinian village of Bil'in has gained worldwide publicity due to the resolute protest mounted by village residents and Israeli and international peace activists against the separation fence, which is tearing the village away from its lands.

Every Friday, Border Policemen face off against the demonstrators. The policemen violently disperse the gathering. But the demonstrators and policemen do not know that a few meters away, on the western side of the fence route in a new section of the settlement of Upper Modi'in, building violations on a colossal scale are being committed in broad daylight. This description is not an excerpt from a Peace Now press release. Rather, it is a verbatim quote from a letter by attorney Gilad Rogel, the legal counselor of the Upper Modi'in Local Council, in reference to the new neighborhood called Matityahu East.

This quote comes from an exchange of letters that tells the story of the largest settlement outpost established in recent years in the territories. The letters expose an affair of "hast thou stolen and also inherited" that is being played out in the shadow of the fence, behind the smokescreen of the security of Israeli citizens and under the nose of enforcement authorities. Even the severe report on settlement outposts drafted by attorney Talia Sasson contains nothing that could compare with a case in which the state constructs a fence along a route that is intended to annex an entire settlement built without permits. If that were not enough, the settlement/neighborhood is located in disregard of an explicit commitment by Israel to the United States to avoid construction outside the jurisdiction of existing settlements.

This time, representatives of the legal authorities themselves revealed their nakedness, on official stationary. However, they did not take into account that the damning evidence would find its way to the neighbors in Bil'in. The State Prosecutor's Office was certainly surprised to find the Upper Modi'in legal counselor's document appended to a letter that it received last week from attorney Michael Sfard, the Bil'in residents' attorney. Sfard began the letter he sent to attorney Aner Helman, who is representing the state in the Bil'in case (High Court of Justice 8614/05) with a quote from the state's response to the Bil'in residents' petition: "Based on developers' reports, which the Civil Administration are incapable of verifying (the words `which the Civil Administration are incapable of verifying' are boldfaced), in the western tract of Plan 210/8, which has already been developed, there are about 750 housing units, of which some 520 have been sold." Further down, it is stated that since the construction is being carried out in accordance with an invalid plan, "this is partly unlawful construction." Straight and straightforward.

One has to read it a few times to believe it. A representative of the attorney general, the supreme law enforcement authority in Israel, is informing the Supreme Court that the Civil Administration, the body that is by law responsible for the construction of every porch in the territories, "cannot verify" the construction of 750 housing units, of which about 520 have already been sold. "Do I understand from what you say that the State of Israel officially admits that it has lost not only its ability to enforce the law on the settlers," asks Sfard, but also "the ability to reach the construction sites and gather data?" If the prosecution were to ask this of the policemen who are sent each Friday to the site, they would have no problem verifying that the construction is continuing apace. They could even disclose that the developers have uprooted hundreds of olive trees in an area that was not even supposed to be part of the neighborhood/settlement outpost.

In the same letter about the violation on a colossal scale, which began in March of this year, relating to a building site of the Green Park construction firm, Upper Modi'in legal counselor Rogel wrote to the local council's engineer, Aryeh Pe'er, that he was astonished to learn that additional developers were also building "entire buildings without a permit, and all of this with your full knowledge and with planning and legal lawlessness with which I do not have the words to describe." Rogel announced that since he cannot contend alone with "lawlessness in such dimensions," he had decided to transfer the handling of this "sore evil" to the highest levels.

Pe'er does not deny the facts. He confirms that the construction is not lawful, and puts the blame on "the bureaucracy." He contends that Rogel took part in meetings of the planning committee that issued a warning to the construction firm, and that now he is pretending that he didn't know a thing about it.

The local council's comptroller, Shmuel Heisler, was expecting this response from the engineer. In a letter that he sent to members of the local council, Heisler wrote that it could be assumed that Pe'er would suggest to the legal counselor and to the council head Yaakov Guterman that they "wipe the cobwebs from their eyes" - for after all, everyone was a partner throughout the entire period of construction in the settlement. "On December 31, 2004, I wrote a detailed report in which I reiterated my comments about how the council's planning committee was being run, about the unlawful construction and the granting of construction permits by the head of the council and the council's engineer in violation of the law," writes Heisler.

In a report on the operation of the council, drafted earlier this year at the request of the management of the Interior Ministry's municipal division, Heisler wrote, "Most serious of all the projects approved by the authorization authority [the head of the council and the engineer of the council] was the Matityahu East project, in contravention of the approved Taba urban construction plan. The deviations are significant." Heisler quotes from a letter by the head of the Planning Authority in the Judea and Samaria Civil Administration, who supported his comments. He relates that in the wake of the report, the head of the council halted the activity of the council's oversight committee.

In response, the Justice Ministry stated: "In the case of the handling of the petition on fence construction in the area, the State Prosecutor's Office learned that unlawful construction had evidently been carried out in the settlement of Upper Modi'in. The Civil Administration, through the office of the Judea and Samaria district attorney general, was asked by the prosecutor handling the case to render his opinion of the matter. This opinion has not yet been received by the prosecution, and the Justice Ministry will continue to track developments. Since the information has not yet been submitted to the Justice Ministry, it is obvious that the information has not been brought to the attention of the attorney general, either. In any event, the attorney general has not yet taken up the matter."

Palestine-Israel, The joint struggle against the separation fence in Bil'in and Al-Jib 9-12-05

The two themes of this Friday demonstration were the planting of olive trees saplings to replace the olive trees robed by the companies building the big Modi'in Elit settlement on the lands of Bil'in, and the call for the release of the two peace activists kidnapped in Iraq who were previously active in our region against the separation fence.

As usual, the demonstration started at noon with a march from the center of the village towards the route of the separation fence in building. Participated in it about 100 people. About 50 activists of the Bil'in village, about ten people from other villages and students of the Bir-Zeit university, about twenty international activists, and 30 Israelis from the Anarchists Against The Wall initiative and others (other activists of our initiative and some internationals participated in a parallel demonstration against the separation fence together with 150 villagers of the Al-Jib village).

In the march from the center of Bil'in, in addition to the placards and the usual chants, we carried with us saplings of olive trees and working tools for their planting. When we neared the route of the fence, we got off the road and through the olive orchards we marched towards the destroyed orchards where the olive trees of Bil'in villagers were robed by the settlement construction companies.
The armed forces of the Israeli state did not like our ideas. When they discovered our change of course the showered us with tear gas canisters - some of them were shot directly at demonstrators and two of them hit comrades. In spite the shower of tear gas significant part of us succeeded to reach the fence route, and when the cloud of gas cleared, the rest of us joined them.

As the armed forces prevented us from passing to the other side of the fence - where the olive trees were robed, we had to plant the sapling at the side of the route where they blocked us. They did not like the idea at all. They detained one of us at the start of the planting - reported by the afternoon news programs of the main radio stations that he was accused for planting an olive tree in a closed military zone - as reported by the army spoke man.

The planting of the last sapling aroused fierce objection of some of the state force who tried to grab the sapling and the working tool and prevent the digging in the ground. However, after a stubborn struggle the last sapling was planted too. After a while part of us tried again to pass to the other side of the route. This brought on them the harsh attack of soldiers who even arrested a Palestinian youngster. The comrades around objected to this and de-arrested him. As revenge, the soldiers drove them away by physical force and some gas towards the village.

After a while the village struggle comity announced the end of the demonstration and we returned to the village.

In parallel to the nonviolent demonstration, youngsters of the village who were driven away by the first shower of tear gas started a bit later the usual attrition war of stones throwing versus tear gas of the soldiers.

In the news program the reported on two injured among the youth.

They have not reported about the number of our people injured by the rough treatment of the soldiers or the tear gas canisters.

Israel, Tel-Aviv, a vigil in support of the Turkish anarchist refusnic Mehmet Tarhan 09 Dec

As part of the internationanl day of solidarity with Mehmet Tarhan jailed for total refusing of military servic, participated 25 people. In the vigil that was called by the "Profile Hadash" initiative that support Israeli refusnics participated also local anarchists.

Palestine-Israel, Bil'in and Abud - the Friday demonstrations against the separation fence and the ocupation of 2-12-05

As usual in Bil'in for the last 10 months and Abud the last weeks, we did the parallel Friday demonstrations against the separation fence used to rob the lands of the villages and against the occupation. As usual, the efforts of the Israeli army to prevent the arrival of Israeli activists - whose participation prevent the army from using harsher measures to harass the participants and suppress the demonstrations, failed... they only succeeded to delay the arrival of ten activists from Jerusalem so they missed the first few minutes of the demonstration in Bil'in. The theme of this Friday demonstration in Bil'in was the colonialist settlements built on the lands of Bil'in and neighboring villages' At the head of the demonstration we carried models with the names of these settlement and aseptically a big on with the name of the settler city Modi'in Elite.

In addition to the models, few placard who were previously carried by activists from Bil'in at the of the week joint demonstration of solidarity with peace activists in the occupied Iraq done by the local popular comities of the region in the region city Ramalla.

In the demonstration that started at noon from the center of the Bil'in village participated only about 120 people.
35 Israelis of the Anarchists Against The Wall initiative and others (other 20 0f our activists were in the demo at Abud), 15 internationals, 10 students of the Palestinian university Bir-Zeit, and about 60 people of the village (only 10% of the adult males of the appropriate age).

During the demo that started at noon from the center of the village we chanted the usual replicas, in addition, there were new chants regarding the parallel demo at the not so far away village Abud.

Some time after we arrived at the point on the road near the route of the separation fence where the Israeli armed forces block our way, we started to try to get down from the road to the sides in order to reach the fence route itself. The state forces responded in rough pushes and due to our small numbers succeeded to block our way to the fence. However, after some confrontations, they got very angry, and under the pretext that youngsters not participating in the nonviolent demonstration are throwing stones declared they will force us to return to the village.

This Friday, the attrition confrontation between the Israeli state forces teargas and rubber bullets and the stone throwing youngsters in the near by olive orchards was less intense, and the youngsters did it far away from the nonviolent demo... and did not injure any of us like they do often when they try to hit near by state forces.

And they pushed and pushed, and they succeeded to push many of the participants (with many of us staying behind) the few hundreds meters to the village... and even took 2 Israelis and one Palestinian as prisoners.

This brought on them the rage of a contingent of ten female relatives of the Palestinian villager who were joined by the just pushed demonstrators who returned together with us who stayed behind to the previous point near the fence route while the tired border police could not block the new human wave.

There, there was a noisy confrontation between the women contingent and the state commanders we did not fail to join... and as result there was a bargain and a declaration of the state commander that if we retreat about hundred meters the Palestinian comrade will be released and the Israelis will be released as usual 10 minutes after the end of the demonstration.

So we retreated first 100 meters and when the Palestinian comrade was released we returned to the village. After a short talk we often do at end of demos, the released two Israelis arrived and we departed from the village activists and Israeli comrades with "see you in Bil'in next Friday".

And as usual, all afternoon the radio channels included in the news references to our twine demonstrations against the separation fence, and at least one TV news program included a short clip of a demo.

Palestine-Israel, the joint Friday demonstration against the fence in the village Bil'in 25-11-05

This Friday demonstration in Bil'in was marking the 29-11-1947 the United Nation decision to partition the British mandate of Palestine into two states - one for the Palestinians and one for the Jews... This decision supplied Israel state that was built at 15-5-1948 the "justification" and the formal "legality". This decision enabled the the Zionist establishment to build the Israeli state, annex half of the area allocated to the Palestinian state (by secret agreement with the Jordanian rulers who were still under the British hegemony, who got the other half of the area allocated to the Palestinian state) and to expel/transfer hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their land.

The creative art of this week was a long banner on which were drawn four maps of the region west of the Jordan river. The first one was the map of the British mandate of Palestine - after it was separated from the East of the Jordan part at 1922. The second was the 1947 map of the United Nation division of Palestine between the Palestinians and the Zionist-Jews state to be, that devoured half of Palestine. (In that area were living about 600 thousands Jews and nearly the same number of Palestinians - the overwhelming majority of them were transferred during the 1948 war.)
The third map was of the 1948-1967 borders which included in the Israeli state both the half allocated to it by the UN and additional half from what was allocated to the Palestinians, but was deviled between Israel and Jordan. Thus, living for the Palestinians only 25% of the land.
(Palestinians who were residents of the additional areas to be annexed to Israel by the pre war secret agreement, but were not conquered by it during the fake war with Jordan, were transferred to it after the war, on condition Israel will not expel the Palestinians living in them like it did to most Palestinians in the areas allocated to it by the UN and the areas conquered by it during the "independent war" of 1948 - the Palestinian Nakba.) The fourth map was of the the border of the Palestinian authority - the "A" areas which consists of half of the areas west of the Jordan held by the Jordanians before the 1967 war - 12.5% of the area west of the Jordan.
After this map there was drawn a big question mark.... In addition to the big banner we prepared placards in Arabic, Hebrew, and English to accompany the big banner.

At noon - after the prayer at the mosque ended, we started the demonstration, as usual, with a march on the road leading to the route of the separation fence building. The big banner and the placards were as usual at the front of the march. Participated in it 100 Palestinians, 20 internationals and about 30 Israelis of the Anarchists Against The Wall initiative and others of the anti separation fence coalition. (The relatively small number of Israeli participants was because a similar number of our activists participated the same time in a similar demonstration against the separation fence at the village Abud - the Israeli state forces harassment of Israeli activists coming to Bil'in succeeded only to cause 5 comrades to come 20 minutes after the demo started...)

The march to the fence was as usual - chanting and singing along the road leading to the fence, but just before reaching it we turned to the side and in a swift move through the olive orchards to a location where heavy tractors were working on the fence route. This surprise move enabled us to arrive just near the route and with gradual pressure to even spill into it. This Friday we did not try to stop the work of the tractors, but when they wanted to travel the route towards their parking lot, we did not clear the way and they had to wait till we finished the demonstration there. This Friday - not like that of two weeks before, the state force did not try to disperse us by force and tear gas to clear the way for the tractors. The regional commander who was present just instructed them to wait till the demo end. It seems that the first TV channel brief report of two weeks ago and the detailed report to be on it this Friday, which was not sympathetic to the state forces caused the change of mind.

After a while, when the sweet taste of the small victory lost its luster we decided to move to the near by location where the fence was already built. The swift move surprised the state forces again, and few of us reached the fence route the army insist so much to prevent us. The noise of stone knocking on the metal structure protecting the fence was heard far and wide - another small moral buster for us. We could see how the rushing soldiers were making efforts to take away from the fence one of our comrades who insisted to touch it. Later, the repeating of knocking on the metal structure resulted in a detention for an hour of a comrade - released after the demo ended. In spite of threats of arrests, the bad PR the state forces get for their behavior in the Bil'in Friday demonstrations make them much more cautious in their treatment of the nonviolent demonstrations.

After a two and a half hours demo - instead of the one hour long originally planed, we returned to the village a bit weary but satisfied.

And as usual, in parallel to our non violent demonstration there was the the attrition war between the stone throwing youngsters and the tear gas shooting soldiers in the olive orchards not far from the demo. It seems that even in this endeavor the state forces were much less belligerent.

On our way to the village we met stone throwers from another village who came to join the struggle, who were too on their way home.

Palestine-Israel, Bil'in, the nine months Friday joint demos tradition continue - 18-11-05

In spite of 4 military jeeps road block on the way from Safa to Bil'in we succeeded to infiltrate to the village and participate in the preparation of art display of the Friday demo. Two "fences" on which was written in the three languages - Arabic, Hebrew, and English: "Your fence is killing our independence", and groups of 4 balloons with the color of the Palestinian flag - connected this Friday demo to the Palestinian declaration of independence to be from 17 years ago.
Next day, the israeli armed forces succeeded to delay the arrival to the demo of the other Israelis, but even the late comers came in time to participate in it. Friday noon, as usual, we started the weekly march from the center of the village to the fence route - about 150 Palestinians, 30 of the Israeli Anarchists Against The Wall initiative and others - less than the usual because of parallel demo in Abud village, and 30 international activists.

At the head of the marching mass and at its end were carried the fences we prepared and within them we marched chanting, singing, and on occasion even some did the ritual danced. For their fun, children who joined the demo caused from time to time to a balloon explosion with its intense noise.

And as usual, the march brought us to 50 meter from fence route where the Israeli armed forces blocked our way and prevented the hanging of the balloons on the fence. As a provocation, the nine months policy of not working on the fence route in Bil'in region on Fridays to lower the tension, it was the second Friday in a row they put a machine to work during the demonstration.

After doing the demo on the road there for a while, we started to move to the "forbidden" sides of it which aroused the fear of the state forces that we might succeed to reach the near by fence route. With efforts they pushed us back again and again while tiring and angering them. They detained one of us to be released on the spot at the end of the demo. The frustrate commander who was limited by orders from doing arrests and harsher measures against the non violent demonstrators, ordered to push are back on the road - few meters at a time. Claiming it is because we do not stop the youngsters who left the demonstration earlier, from throwing stones on soldiers in near by olive orchard. On one of the occasions he even ordered the destruction of our two art display fences.

The youngsters, frustrated from the nonviolent response of the participants of the Friday demonstrations to the army harassment, usually start their few hours attrition war of stones versus tear gas and rubber bullets of the state forces in the near by olive orchards.

(This attrition war seems to serve the state propaganda, and if the youngsters do not start it spontaneously the state forces provoke them and even some times send under cover unit to start the stone throwing....)

Near the end of the demo, the stone throwing youngsters came near the road and stoned the soldier who were pushing us injuring only one of the demonstrators who was treated on the spot by the ambulance medics who are with us every Friday demo. This stone throwing made us to finish hastily the demo to evade being in the middle between the stones and the shooting.

US, Ayad Morrar and Jonathan Pollack from Palestine-Israel, on Democracy Now! Wednesday 16 Nov

Ayed Morrar (Abu Ahmed) from Budrus and Jonathan Pollack from Tel Aviv will be guests on Democracy Now! tomorrow; Wednesday, November 11. Ayed is an organizer with the Popular Committee to Resist the Wall, and Jonathan is a member of the Israeli Anarchists Against the Wall. They have just completed a month-long national speaking tour, discussing the current situation on the ground in Palestine and the grassroots resistance to the "Separation Wall." For more information, see http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/speaking-tour.
In New York: Radio: WBAI, 9 -10am TV: CUNY-TV at 6:30pm, ch. 75 (rebroadcast at 1am) Manhattan Neighborhood Network (MNN) 8 - 9am, ch. 34, 107 National and International show times listed at the Democracy Now! web site: http://www.democracynow.org/stations.shtml

The show will also be archived on the Democracy Now! web site.
The speaking tour has been organized by ISM-USA.