[wvns] Israel Settlers Attack Media Crew
International Solidarity Movement News Bulletins
palsolidarity.org
World Bank condemns roadblocks, 5 activists arrested for
dismantling them
by the ISM Media Crew, 16 May 2007
UPDATE, May 17 From Kobi Snitz: All 5 of us were released thanks to
the excellent work by Gaby Lasky who made the prosecution seem
especially ignorant today. We were not required to deposit any money
and the conditions of release are that we stay 500 m away from
Dahariya junction and (the Israelis) to not participate in illegal
assembly. The internationals will have to stay in a specified home of
a friend (but not be under house arrest). The prosecution still say
they will try to deport them but that is a lot less likely now that
they are not under arrest anymore.
Thanks to everyone who came to court to support us, collected evidence
did legal support and brought food.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
16 May 2007
Three Israelis and two international solidarity activists were
arrested today at a non-violent action in Daharia, removing an Israeli
roadblock. The roadblock has been installed since the late 2000. It
prevents the 90,000 Palestinians in Dhahariya and neighboring villages
from accessing Route 60, the main road into Hebron. This forces them
to take a longer alternative route, turning what would be a 20-minute
journey into an hour and a half. The nearest hospital to Dharirya is
in Hebron, so this roadblock added more than an hour onto the journey
time for an ambulance, effectively cutting off the village from
emergency medical care.
All activists are currently spending the night at Kiryat Arba police
station. The Israelis are accused of illegal assembly, interference of
a police officer in duty and property damage. They will be brought to
court in Jerusalem tomorrow at around noon (exact hour TBA).
As for the 2 internationals, it is still unclear what may happen to
them. Gaby Lasky, the lawyer defending the activists, said that they
may be sent today to the ministry of interior and face deportation or
may be brought to court tomorrow in Jerusalem along with the Israelis.
On May 3, protesters dismantled a temporary roadblock in the Hebron
Hills, close to the town of Dahariyah. In response to this non-violent
action, armed Israeli soldiers violently attacked Israeli protesters.
The military police criminal investigations division has launched an
investigation into the incident. Video of the attack can be seen HERE:
http://news.walla.co.il/?w=//1104277
According to a May report released by the World Bank, "Currently,
freedom of movement and access for Palestinians within the West Bank
is the exception rather than the norm contrary to the commitments
undertaken in a number of Agreements between GOI and the PA. In
particular, both the Oslo Accords and the Road Map were based on the
principle that normal Palestinian economic and social life would be
unimpeded by restrictions. In economic terms, the restrictions arising
from closure not only increase transaction costs, but create such a
high level of uncertainty and inefficiency that the normal conduct of
business becomes exceedingly difficult and
stymies the growth and investment which is necessary to fuel economic
revival."
Full World Bank report HERE:
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTWESTBANKGAZA/Resources/WestBankrestrictions9Mayfinal.pdf
For more information, contact:
ISM Media Crew, 02-297-1824, 0599-943-157, 0542-103-657
***************
2) Two internationals hospitalized after Israeli settlers attack
by the ISM Media Crew
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
19 May 2007
Tel Rumeida, Hebron- Today, May 19, at 2:30pm, a group of 6 Israeli
settlers, aged 15-17, attacked a group of Palestinian children and two
human rights workers (HRWs), one from Germany and one from Greece.
The settlers were walking from the illegal Israeli settlement of Tel
Rumeida towards Shuhadda St. When they crossed a group of Palestinian
children, the settlers started to harass the children and push them
around. The HRWs followed the settlers further down onto Shuhadda St.,
near the illegal settlement of Beit Hadassah.
The settlers then started to throw rocks at the HRWs. When George,
from Greece, opened up his camera to start filming, the settlers
attacked him from behind.
George said, "They hit me several times in my head and then I fell to
the ground. Then, the settlers started to kick me while I was on the
ground. They broke my camera and tried to steal it. The Israeli
soldier who was standing right in front of me yelled at the settlers
but did not stop the attack from happening."
Trudy, from Germany, said, "I went to go and help George when the
settlers kicked him to the ground, then 2 settlers started to attack
me. The settlers kicked me in the stomach. They were big boys, 15-17
years old. I started to scream. The settlers didn't leave when the
soldier yelled. They left when they saw the police arriving.
The Israeli police took Geroge and Trudy to the police station to file
a report. George, however, was very dizzy and in pain and asked that
the police escort the two of them to the hospital. The police,
however, refused to do so and let them outside of the police station
where the two HRWs took a taxi to the hospital.
At 15:00, George and Trudy arrived at Al Ahli hospital, where they are
currently receiving treatment.
For more info, contact:
ISM Media Office, 0599-943-157, 0542-103-657
***************
3) 40 Children Without a Roof
Demolition of Palestinian homes in Attir
by Yeela Raanan, Regional Council for the Unrecognized Villages in the
Negev, 21 May 2007
Today, Monday, May 21, 2007, again the government of Israel again
demolished homes of its citizens. This time in the village of Attir,
north of the town of Hura. The government demolished four homes. About
40 children were left without a roof over their heads and with harsh
memories they will carry their entire lives.
In the 1950s the government of Israel uprooted the Abu-Alqian people
and relocated them in the location they are living until today.
Ahmad built his home in the 1990s. The government wanted to move him
and his entire extended family to the town of Hura. Despite wishing to
maintain a rural community way of life, despite living off animal
husbandry, despite the government's wish to build a village for Jews
in the place of his village, because of the threat of his home being
demolished, the extended family - several brothers - agreed to move to
Hura. They came to an agreement with the Authority for the
"Advancement" of the Bedouins on the location of a neighborhood in
Hura that will host their extended family.
There were two final points to settle with the Authority: the
Authority was willing to allow single young men from the age of 23 to
purchase land for homes, while the family wanted the young men from
the age of 18 to have this right. Especially since the Authority was
not willing to allocate space for future family home purchases. The
second point was the amount of compensation that the families should
receive. The government decided that $25,000 was the cost of the large
stone buildings the families were leaving behind, and the families had
no legal way to refute this. Of this half would go towards the
purchase of the land on which the new house was to be built. This left
the family the ridiculous sum of $12,000 with which to build a new
home. The family requested a true estimate of the cost of building a
new home similar to that they had to leave.
At this point the Authority lost patience and decided that instead of
negotiations, they will demolish. Now Ahmad and the others don't have
a negotiation chip - they have no home to leave...
Police come to Attir to demolish homes, RCUV
There are several questions one may ask from what occurred today:
· Was it really less expensive to employ a helicopter, eight buses
full of police people who were brought from the center of Israel, five
bulldozers, scores of large cars full of more police people -
hundreds, or maybe thousands of police people, rather than agreeing to
the requests by the families for more fair compensation?
· Will this line of action by the Authority bring forth many more
people happy to give up their lives in the villages, and negotiate
with the Authority on the conditions of transfer to the new locations
demanded by the government?
· Do we really want the gangsters who run the Authority to be those
who define for us the relationships with our neighbors in the Negev?
***************
4) IWPS: Family home in Al Funduq to be demolished in three days
by Sue, IWPS, 16 May 2007
report with photos here:
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2007/05/17/funduq-home-demolish-3days/
A family in Al Funduq had a demolition order delivered to their home
while both were at work yesterday, 16th May. The paper was left on the
door. It was the third final order and it left them three days to
leave before destruction of their home.
The man, 29 years old is a worker for the Red Crescent Society. The
woman, 25 years old, is a school-teacher. They have two children, four
years and 8 months old. The house, which had been built for them to
move in after their wedding, is 150 square meters and an approximate
value of NIS 180,000 or USD $45,350.
The International Women's Peace Service, Haris, Salfit, Palestine.
Tel:- (09)-2516-644
The house has been under threat of demolition since February 2006,
when the first demolition order was delivered. The second demolition
order followed in May 2006. Each time, the family has retained an
attorney in an attempt to appeal against the demolition. They paid out
approximately NIS 12,000 or USD $3020 USD to the lawyers and nothing
was achieved. The order which had been left by Israeli soldiers on the
door of their house yesterday, the family retained a third lawyer for
NIS 7,940 or USD $2000.
Last year, one of the man's brothers had his home demolished (see IWPS
HR Report No. 279) nearby to this house. The reason given then was
lack of a permit to build. Reasons given for this year's slated
demolition is also lack of a permit to build. The family has a deed to
the property dated from 1964.
***************
5) The children of Al Hadidiya live here no more
by Daphne Banai, 15 May 2007
A month ago we went to see the people of El Hadidiya. They have been
living in the Israeli Occupied Jordan Valley for over 100 years, but
have been expelled - to accommodate the needs of the illegal Israeli
settlement that popped up around them. For the last 10 years,
Palestinians in Hadidiya have been living near the settlement of Ro'i,
growing wheat and tending to their sheep. But their Israeli settler
neighbors demanded their removal because they fancied their land.
In despair the Hadidiya family turned to the Israeli Supreme Court
looking for justice, for protection, from the colonizers' judicial
system. What a joke ! Claiming they were nomads (they are not - they
try to settle and own the land !) - the court said it would not matter
where they settle, and rejected their claim...
They turned their hoping eyes to us, and we had nothing to to offer
them. What could we do? What could we say? That we'll help?
Today we came again to see what's happening with those gentle people
and found ruins, destruction and lots of medications (for a broken
heart?)
An old bike, some coins that are not in use any more, men's shoes
coupled up tidily - as if waiting for a couple of bare feet to make
their way in, a dovecote - all the doves flying around it, a child's
toy.
The place still smells of life, carried on the sounds of death.
Everywhere I looked I could see the eyes of these little children
piercing me. Will they come haunting us forever? And how does one live
with the pain, with the shame?
***************
6) Commemorating the Nakba in Ramallah
from Kim and Anjelka, IWPS, 17 May 2007
report with photos here:
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2007/05/20/59-year-nakba-ramallah/
Al Nakba, which means "the catastrophe" in Arabic, is the name given
by the Palestinians to the 1948 UN partition of British Mandate
Palestine, establishment of the state of Israel and the resulting
ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population from major parts of the
territory. Between April and May, 1948, as a result of attacks by
Zionist militias and the first Arab-Israeli war, more than 750,000
Palestinians were displaced from their ancestral homes and forces to
flee to refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. Today, Israel
continues to deny the Palestinian Nakba and the right of return of
more than 6 million Palestinian refugees worldwide.
More than a thousand people attended the largest commemoration rally,
in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Demonstrators marched from the
"Camp of the Nakba", near the Palestinian National Headquarters, to
Manara Square in the city's centre. At Manara Square, members of the
Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) addressed the rally, warning
against the renewed factional fighting and saying that Palestinians
didn't need a new Nakba.
A number of Palestinians with Israeli citizenship made the journey to
Ramallah to participate in the rally. One young woman, Siwar, who
ravelled with her family from Jerusalem, said she was marching "to
remind the Israeli people that their 'independence day' was our al
Nakba and we can never forget that".
Siwar said that even though she and her family "are forced to have
Israeli ID, we are still Palestinian and we will never forget al
Nakba". "We are still all Palestinians", she said, "whether we are in
'48', in the Occupied Territories, Lebanon, Jordan or Syria, and we
are united in the memory of al Nakba".
Dozens of other women joined the Ramallah rally singing traditional
Palestinian song remembering the 1948 catastrophe. One participant,
Mona said that the reasons she and the other women were marching was
because "we want to remember the refugees".
***************
7) Destroying the Wall in Umm Salamuna
by the ISM Media Crew, 18 May 2007
On May 18 2007, a demonstration commemorating the Nakba (the
"Catastrophe," when Israel forcibly displaced three quarters of a
million Palestinians from their homes, massacred civilians, and the
razing to the ground of hundreds of Palestinian villages) took place
in the village of Um Salamuna near Bethlehem. Around 100 Palestinians,
Israelis and internationals gathered for prayers near the settlement
road cutting the village off from its land. The army, border police
and riot unit showed up with around eleven jeeps and 60 well-armed
men. The aim of the demonstration was to cross the settler road and
reach the village's land in a show of peaceful defiance against the
many years of occupation and oppression.
Following speeches from Palestinian villagers and members of the
public, in which they detailed their wishes for peace and justice for
their people, we all started walking the short distance to the gate
between the village and the road.
Basha, a Palestinian demonstrator, said, "We were stopped almost
immediately by the special riot unit, who pushed us back with much
force. Two Israelis were arrested for "violating" the closed military
zone order that had been imposed. Much violence ensued on the part of
the riot unit."
Two flying checkpoints were setup on the main road and the entrance of
village stopping Palestinian vehicles and the residents of the nearby
villages of Umm Salamuna to join their right to protest against the
occupation and the thief of the their land. A group of Palestinians
walked down the hill around the checkpoint to reach the demonstration.
The Palestinian leaders of the demonstration decided that we were to
turn our backs on the soldiers and march along the route of the wall
back to the village. A number of people spontaneously began to destroy
the infrastructure of the wall, in order to make it more difficult for
the Israeli authorities to complete their work. Once again, we were
confronted by a line of many soldiers. A short and rather peaceful
confrontation ensued and the demonstration was then ended by the
Palestinian organizers.
One organizer of the event said, "the demonstration was a great
success: we managed to get our message across. We were there to defy
the Occupation and we did so."
Palestinians will again be joined next Friday by Israeli and
international solidarity activists.
****************
8) Showered with tear gas on Nakba day
from A-Infos, 19 May 2007
This Friday the theme of the demonstration in Bil'in was the Nakba.
This week marked 59 years from the formal robbery of most of the
Palestinian lands by the Israeli settler colonialists with blessing of
the United Nation and the big imperial powers. We marched at noon on
the road leading to the route of the separation fence - Palestinians
from the village and the region; international activists; Israelis
organized by the anarchists against the wall (AATW) initiative; and
media workers of all kinds. Among the participants from Ramallah, were
people of the Popular Democratic Front (of Naif Hawatme). One of them
was old enough to remember the exchanging of texts between their
journals and the Israeli anti-authoritarian anti capitalist (anti
Zionist) journal Matspen....
Most of the marchers carried small placards - each with the name of
one of the about 500 villages destroyed in 1948 by the Israeli
expansionist forces.
When we arrived at the foot of the hill on its top is located the gate
to the robed lands on the other side of the separation fence, we
encountered a line of barbed wire and lot of soldiers half the way up
the hill. Their commander declared with the loudspeaker that there is
a military closed space just behind the barbed wire. He warned with
retaliation and arrest people who will cross the line.
The people at the head moved aside the barbed wire spool and continued
to advance - and got immediately a shower of tear gas canisters.
The tear gas detered most of the people who retreated a hundred meters
and dispersed among the olive trees on the side of the road. A small
group of comrades who succeeded to march up the hill got a special
shower of tear gas and was forced to join the rest of us.
For more than two hours there were waves of people regrouping and
advancing a bit, and showers of tear gas forcing us to retreat. At
some point, olive trees in the groove were set on fire by the shooting
of tear gas grenades, and demonstrators worked to extinguish the fire
in spite of the tear gas.
In their efforts to disperse the demonstration soldiers even invaded
the fringe of the built area of the village.
After the fires were extinguished the demonstration was ended. I could
see one comrade carrying a 20 liter bucket full of tear gas canisters
as a kind of trophy - a small part of the hundreds fired on us this
day.
***************
9) Please don't shit on the apricots
by: Yifat Appelbaum
report with photos here:
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2007/05/17/dont-poo-on-the-apricots-please/
Today I feel frustrated. I sat in a cute little apricot orchard in a
village near Beit Lahem as the army watched us through binoculars from
the hill, a menacing bulldozer in the background. They're going to
'doze this orchard to make way for sewage pipes from the Efrata
settlement. New sections of Efrata are being built on the hill above
the orchard. I was imagining all the problems that are going to happen
once the settlers move in; villagers will need special permits to
access their land. These permits will be difficult to obtain. Even if
they do get permits, they will still be subject to the whims of the
army who can either let them work the land or not, depending on their
mood or the mood of the settlers controlling them. It will become like
a hell, like so much of the west bank is already becoming. This has
happened hundreds of times already.
The only way to look at this is warfare. Land is stolen, no one in
compensated. If some kid so much as throws a pebble in the direction
of the invading army he's going to get shot or arrested. People whose
families have supported themselves for generations off this land are
suddenly without a source of income and forced to rely on handouts
from various NGOs since, as we know, foreign aid is no longer coming
into Palestine because of the international boycott of the Hamas
government. Does Ismail Haniyeh look like he's starving yet ?
It's starting to feel ineffective to sit around for a few hours here
and there and block a bulldozer while the army is patiently waiting
for you to get bored and leave, and they know you will. So we save an
orchard for one more day. Maybe a few extra hours here and there.
But I do know something. There is absolutely no way to justify this in
the name of security for Israelis. No way at all.
***************
10) Don't s**t on our apricots!"
by Martinez, 16 May 2007
Report with photos and video here:
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2007/05/16/dont-poo-on-my-trees/
Mohammad Abu Swai, who holds the deeds to this land, explains the
situation in Artas village
Maybe it was because the word was spread, the call was headed, and 4
Israeli and 9 international solidarity activists joined Palestinians
in the village of Artas today to resist the Israeli army's demolition
of a field of apricot trees in Jesus' hometown of Bethlehem.
Or maybe it was because it started to pour down rain, equipped with
lightning and thunder, causing not only the army, but also the
activists to take shelter in the nearby caves.
Regardless, the Israeli bulldozers will be back tomorrow morning, and
the Palestinians of Artas village are still seeking the help of
solidarity activists to join them in resisting these abhorring actions
on behalf of the Israeli army.
The illegal Israeli settlement of Efrat is in the distance. The army
is destroying this field of apricot trees in order to pave the way for
a new sewage system for the illegal colony. The day before we arrived,
contractors and soldiers lined the trees and land with markers,
reading "10 meteres, 40 meters, etc," leading all the way up to 150
meters.
Some of us talked about making T-shirts that say "Don't shit on our
apricots!"
Artas is a beautiful village, as are her apricot trees and her people.
As Israeli bulldozers ripped away the hilltop in the distance to make
way for military roads, settler roads, and a place for the militarily-
funded Bedouin security personnel to sleep at night and guard the
construction site, farmers from Artas whipped up some delicious tea
and thanked us all for coming to resist the demolition of their
fields.
But the rain came and pushed all the soldiers away. Villagers from
Artas believe they will be back in the morning.
Update to come.
We'll be back there too.
***************
11) Family's trees uprooted in Artas, Palestinian Information Minister
attacked by Israeli soldiers
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
20 May 2007
Report with video here:
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2007/05/20/barghouti-attacked/
On Sunday morning, May 20, Israeli Occupation Forces destroyed an
apricot and date orchard comprised of 28 trees in the village of Artas
near Bethlehem. Four Israeli activists were arrested.
At 5:30 AM, approximately 40 soldiers came and forcibly removed
approximately 60 Palestinian, Israeli and international activists who
had been maintaining a presence on the land since Wednesday, May 16.
Soldiers hit and kicked activists who had chained themselves to trees,
and forcibly threw others over a stone wall, including elderly
Palestinian women. After the activists had been removed, the bulldozer
entered the land and the army uprooted the trees and ripped apart the
land.
Israel's apartheid wall is being built through the village of Artas to
allow for the expansion of the Efrat settlement and is confiscating
approximately 4000 dunums of land. Two new settlement neighborhoods,
Tamar and Dagan are being built on the land and will be attached to
Efrat. This expansion is illegal under international law and the so-
called "Road Map to Peace." Sewage from Efrat will be piped out
through this former orchard.
Later, at 1:30 pm, Palestinian Information Minister Dr. Mustafa
Barghouti arrived at the demolition site in Artas. There, he held a
press conference, highlighting speakers from the village and their
recent trauma. Shortly after the media left, according to Mohammad Abu
Swai, about 50 Israeli soldiers entered the site and started to
brutalize the crowd. Dr. Barghouti was hit with a soldier's club from
behind.
Abu Swai explained, "The soldiers are acting like animals! They are
hiiting anyone in their path, including the Minister!"
Soldiers are still currently stationed in the village. Palestinians
were planning to replant their uprooted trees, including an additional
30 trees that were just purchased.
Like most settlements, Efrat was started illegally as an outpost but
was later approved by the Israeli supreme court.
The orchard belonged to the Abu Swai family.
Video footage of demolition available upon request.
For more information:
Arabic: Awad Swai 0598305810
English: Jesus Martinez 0599943157
Hebrew/English/Arabic: Adar 0525444866
***************
12) In the belly of the wailing "democracy" called Israel
In this story, Hope may just be the name of someone I served coffee to
in Pennsylvania
report with photos and video here:
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2007/05/21/in-the-belly-of-the-wailing-democracy-called-israel/
by Jesus Martinez, 21 May 2007
We start this tale on Friday, May 18th in Bethlehem, and end up back
in Bethlehem on Sunday May 2o. Jesus would have been devastated seeing
what I have seen in his birth town.
In 1948, Palestinians suffered from a major Catastrophe. They call it
the Nakba. Three quarters of a million Palestinians were displaced
from their homes and 531 villages, hundreds of which were razed to the
ground, civilians were massacred, and they continue to remain as
refugees, denied their right of returning home.
The right of return is an inalienable right. Denial of the right of
return is a perpetuation of ethnic cleansing which is a war crime. The
right of return is a basic right, derived from the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and all international and regional
covenants. It is an individual right derived from the sanctity of
private ownership and a collective right derived from the Principle of
Self-Determination. It has no statute of limitation and cannot be
extinguished by a treaty or the establishment of a state. It is
affirmed by the UN Resolution 194 and repeatedly confirmed by the
international community over 110 times in 50 years, unparalleled in UN
history. Legally, the Return can ONLY be implemented to the refugee's
home and land in 1948, not anywhere else, even in Palestine. Ben
Gurion's doctrine: "the destruction of the Palestinian Society in
Palestine is a necessary condition for the establishment of the state
of Israel on its ruins."
from the Palestine Land Society
So, on May 18th, Palestinians from Umm Salamuna, a village near
Bethlehem, were joined by 100 Israeli and international solidarity
activists in a demonstration commemorating the Nakba and an action
geared at dismantling the construction of Israel's Apartheid Wall in
the village. 1,500 dunams between Umm Salamuna and Wadi Rahal villages
will be isolated because of the Wall, and Palestinians will on be
allowed passage through massive iron gates controlled by Israel
Occupation Forces.
Two flying checkpoints were established on the main road and the
entrance of the village, preventing Palestinian vehicles and the
residents of the nearby villages of Umm Salamuna to join their right
to protest against the illegal occupation and the theft of the their
land. A group of Palestinians and internationals walked down a rocky
slope, effectively avoiding the checkpoint in order to reach the
demonstration.
The army, border police and riot unit showed up with around eleven
jeeps and 60 well-armed men. After Palestinians prayed on the land for
Friday prayers, demonstrators attempted to cross the Israeli settler
road and reach the restricted village's land in a show of peaceful
resistance to the many years of brutal occupation and oppression.
Speeches were made by Palestinian villagers and members of the public
detailing their wishes for peace and justice for their people. Then,
demonstrators made their way towards their restricted land on the
other side of the road.
Basha, a Palestinian demonstrator, said, "We were stopped almost
immediately by the special riot unit, who pushed us back with much
force. Two Israelis were arrested for "violating" the closed military
zone order that had been imposed. Much violence ensued on the part of
the riot unit."
The Palestinian leaders of the demonstration decided that we were to
turn our backs on the soldiers and march along the route of the wall
back to the village. A number of people spontaneously began to destroy
the infrastructure of the wall, in order to make it more difficult for
the Israeli authorities to complete their work. Pipes were pulled from
their places and building materials were thrown down the hillside.
Dismantling the Wall in Umm Salamuna
Once again, we were confronted by a line of many soldiers. A short and
rather peaceful confrontation ensued and the demonstration was then
ended by the Palestinian organizers.
Mahmoud, one organizer of the event said, "the demonstration was a
great success: we managed to get our message across. We were there to
defy the Occupation and we did so."
The Israelis who were arrested were later released.
Several of us loaded ourselves into a taxi to make our way down to the
Israeli- Occupied neighborhood of Tel Rumeida, located in al Khalil
(Hebron). The Tel Rumeida Circus for Detained Palestinians
had a show to perform for the kids tonight. However, just as we were
about to leave Israeli-Occupied Bethlehem, I received a call from
Mohammad Abu Swai. Friends call him Awad.
He told me that Israeli soldiers were currently in his village of
Artas, about 20 minutes from Umm Salamuna. The soldiers, Awad said,
were taking pictures of the area and a handful of jeeps were in the
village. Awad and his family's trees were slated for demolition.
Everyone, including me, sensed that the trees' time was coming soon-
and maybe it was at this moment.
So we flung ourselves from the al Khalil-bound taxi, hopped into one
headed the other direction, and made our way through the curvy roads
of Artas, wedged between two beautiful, large mountains. A "Closed
Paradise" is what residents of Artas call their village. So we headed
to Paradise to confront the Apartheid Mongers from destroying it.
Soldiers were gone before we arrived. But everyone there knew they
would be back. Awad said that they were gathering evidence of who and
what was in the land so the army would know how many jeeps, soldiers,
and police were needed to expel the residents and activists and to
cleanse the land of its fruit, Nakba-style.
We remained on the land until several other activists arrived and
continued our trip back to Hebron.
A new welcome note had been added to one of the concrete blocks
outside the checkpoint into the Tel Rumeida neighborhood:
These concrete blocks are seen all over Palestine, preventing freedom
of movement between Palestinian lands, preventing farmers from
reaching their lands, students from reaching their schools, and the
ill from reaching their hospitals. Inside of the Palestinian
neighborhood of Tel Rumeida, where we now lay our scene, these massive
concrete blocks seal off the neighborhood from the rest of Palestinian
al-Khalil. Palestinians are not allowed to drive cars of any kind in
Tel Rumeida, including ambulances, taxis, and fire trucks. Only Jewish
illegal settlers from such colonies as Beit Hadassah and Tel Rumeida
are allowed to drive cars. They are also allowed to carry weapons,
including M-16s, as they walk around the streets. Palestinians, of
course, are not allowed to carry weapons of any kind.
But, although in the past we at the Tel Rumeida Circus for almost
forced by Israeli police to halt our fire show (we had just ended
anyways), the Occupation has not banned the fire performance on the
streets of Tel Rumeida- yet.
So, at 9:00 pm, TRCDP revealed our new fire routine to the kids of Tel
Rumeida.
We were joined by two additional TRCDP fire spinners.
At the end of the show, Israeli police arrived in their jeep. They
watched us creatively resisting the unwritten law which prevents
groups of Palestinians to gather in the streets of Tel Rumeida,
especially so close to the Israeli colonies. They took in 30 seconds
of the fire show, then they left. We couldn't see them through their
tinted windows, but I think they were smiling.
It was a fun night.
The next day turned into the saddest days of my activist life.
It was Shabbat, Saturday. Just hours after I arrived back to Ramallah
I received a call from Hebron. It is more often than not that settlers
attack on Shabbat. Today was no different.
The story goes like this: Israeli settlers started to hassle a group
of Palestinians in Tel Rumeida, just near the spot where TRCDP had the
circus show the night before.
Two international human rights workers began to follow the settlers.
As the Greek volunteer pulled out his video camera to start filming
the incident, settlers attacked him from behind, punching him in the
head, then kicking him as he lay on the ground. Settlers broke the
camera and tried to steal it.
When the German volunteer began yelling for the soldier, who was
standing right in front of the whole scene, she was then kicked in the
stomach and fell to the ground. The soldier yelled at the settlers
but, although mandated by international law, did not physically
intervene to stop them.
Both volunteers received medical attention at the hospital. One stayed
the night under doctor supervision as they were worried about a skull
fracture or concussion.
In a situation where Israeli soldiers want to stop Palestinians from
doing something, they will most likely disperse them by using tear
gas, sound bombs, rubber-coated steel bullets like in Bil'in, or live
ammunition. Of course, when settlers attack, nothing ever gets done
about it in Tel Rumeida, or Palestine as a whole. The campaign of
harassment against the Palestinians by the settlers continues
perpetuates itself while soldiers stand idly by. Eventually, and if
the extremist settlers could have things their way, all of the
Palestinians will be forced from Tel Rumeida if this abuse continues,
if the rocks continue to be thrown at children as they walk to school,
as settlers continue to torch Palestinian cars and olive trees. The
Nakba hasn't ended in Tel Rumeida. It hasn't ended in Palestine.
You can read the full report of this settler attack HERE:
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2007/05/19/2-intls-hospitalized-hebron/
The Cleansing of Artas
At 6:00 pm this night, I received a call from Mohammad Abu Swai "Awad"
from Artas village. I paused for a second as the phone rang and before
I answered. When his name flashed on my phone, it means something is
wrong.
He told me the news: One of the Bedouin construction workers, a fellow
Arab who was helping the Israeli army to demolish the land and
construct the Apartheid Wall and sewage system for the illegal Israeli
settlement of Efrat in place of the beautiful field of apricot trees
belonging to Abu Swai's family, came to the field in order to give the
Awad a cordial warning.
"The bulldozers will be here at 4am, Mohammad," said the Bedouin
worker, "It's time for you all to evacuate the land."
There were warnings like this before. Thats' why internationals and
Israelis have joined the Palestinians to maintain a presence on the
field of apricot trees in Artas since Wednesday, May 16.
See past reports on Artas HERE:
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2007/05/17/dont-poo-on-the-apricots-please/
and HERE:
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2007/05/16/dont-poo-on-my-trees/
Today's warning, however, I really felt it, as did Awad. "This is the
night," he told me. "This is the night our trees will die."
Israel's Apartheid Wall is being built through the village of Artas to
allow for the expansion of the Israeli colony of Efrat and is
confiscating approximately 4000 dunums of land. Two new Israeli
settlement neighborhoods, Tamar and Dagan, are being built on the land
and will be attached to Efrat. This expansion is illegal under
international law and the so-called "Road Map to Peace." Sewage from
Efrat will be piped out through this former orchard.
You really get to know people under these circumstances. Camping out
in a field of trees in Bethlehem, in an ancient land, surrounded by
mountains and wild sage. I would have never thought while sitting
through Bible class in my old Catholic upbringing and singing songs
about Bethlehem that it could have ever translated to this: Bethlehem
is under siege and the Israeli army is coming to uproot these trees
under which you are sipping tea with the Abu Swai family in order to
construct a wall of Apartheid and a sewage pool for an Israeli colony.
No way. WWJD?
After making some calls regarding the settler attack in Tel Rumeida, I
did my best to rally as many people as possible to make their way to
Artas, at the request of Awad, in order to resist the events that were
about to occur.
Qalandiya Checkpoint
In a private taxi, I made my way through twists and turns back to
Bethlehem. Would have made it sooner had the fortress-style checkpoint
of Qalandiya wasn't there, which separates Palestinians in Ramallah
from Al Ram and other Palestinian towns, including the spiritual,
economic, and geographical center of Palestine: Jerusalem.
As we waited to exit the checkpoint, Jewish settlers could be seen
entering the checkpoint through a separated entrance. Israeli soldiers
waved them through without hesitation and the cars sped away as the
line behind the car I was in grew longer.
40 minutes later we made it to the booth of soldiers. Normally,
soldiers will rummage through the car and questions the passengers in
the car. In this case, because the soldiers saw that one of the
passengers had an American passport, a passport from the country who
helped pay for this fortress and occupation, they waved us through.
8 minutes later, however, we reached a floating checkpoint (consisting
of military jeeps, non-permanent). When they saw me and my passport,
sitting in a car with a Palestinian driver, questions were raised.
"Where are you from!" demanded the soldier.
"You have my passport in your hand."
"Are you getting smart with me!"
"No, but you have my passport in your hand. It says really big on the
front 'United States of America.'"
He disappeared with my passport and the driver's ID. The soldier came
back saying something in Hebrew. I stared at him blankly. He screamed
it again and I stared back blankly.
"Are you stupid or something?" he asked me.
I responded that I do not speak Hebrew and kindly asked that he try
again in English.
"Where is your huwiyya?" the soldier asked. (A huwiyya is a
Palestinian ID card.)
I am not Palestinian, so I do not have a huwiyya. He apparently
refused to believe this and asked me again and I responded that I am
an American, hence the passport still clenched in his 18 year old
hands. 18 year old disappeared again, came back, more or less throwing
my passport from the driver's side window to me, and let us go.
When I arrived in Bethlehem, one of Awad's cousins came and picked me
up in the market. It was now 11:30 pm, Saturday night, fast
approaching the 4am warning time of the tree destruction. The cousin
pulled over to a small restaurant and told me to follow him. I sat
down and he came back with a piece of kanaffe (a Palestinian cheesy
dessert). How could you eat at a time like this, I thought. I would be
too nervous if some foreign army was coming into my home or land to
forcibly expel me and then destroy it. But he ate away and so did I,
then back down that windy road to Artas, Bethlehem.
The Bedouin security personnel were still up on the mountain near
where the path of the Apartheid Wall is being paved. The trees were
still there, too. In nearly five hours, they would be gone.
Apparently the call was heeded, because about 50 Palestinians from
Artas and surrounding Bethlehem areas came to show their solidarity
against the tree and land demolition. There were also 2o or so Israeli
and international solidarity activists.
Tents had been set up two nights before to accommodate the growing
numbers of activists. Campfires were boiling water for tea and coffee.
People were eating pita bread and telling stories in Arabic, Hebrew,
English, Spanish, French, German, Italian. People seemed to be having
a good time, but if you looked deep into the eyes of Awad and others,
you could see the truth. It was a nauseating, impatient, waiting
feeling to the whole scene that night.
It wasn't much longer that, around 2:30 am, a pack of Israeli soldiers
could be seen walking the parameters of the village. The campers
continued to drink tea and chat. The last ruffles of the apricot
leaves were being had.
The soldiers then entered the village. There was no bulldozer in sight
and it was too dark to go ahead with their operation, so what did they
want? I'll tell you.
"We are here to inform you that there is a Jewish sniper somewhere in
the hills around here. We are here to protect."
Basically, they wanted us all to go home. But they knew we wouldn't.
This was home to some of them. They were also gathering information:
How many Palestinians are here? How many Israelis and internationals?
How many soldiers would they need? How many police?
Nobody slept. The tents were empty. At 5:00 am, just the skies were
getting bluer, a Palestinian boy came running into the village.
"Jeish! Jeish!" The army is coming.
Thirty soldier arrived in six jeeps. They held a paper in Hebrew and
showed it to everyone. Then they spoke to Awad and the group in Hebrew-
the language of the Occupation.
The commanding officer said that in 5 minutes, if we didn't
voluntarily leave, we would be forcibly removed.
Abhorring Acts of Occupation
I guess this is what democracy looks like: Israeli soldiers throwing
men, women, young, old, Palestinians, Israelis, and internationals,
over a wall, kicking them to the ground, arresting them for non-
violent resistance.
This is what a wailing, whimpering, yowling democracy sounds like: a
sad, sad excuse for a "democracy." It's a word that no one who sees
this with open eyes and open ears can dare title this form of
government, that privileges one group of people over another, that
destroys land and uproots trees for the betterment of one group of
people over another, that destroys livelihoods in order to replace it
with a pool of sewage.
Soldiers didn't care about who they were pushing around this day. They
didn't care about press passes. They just cared about "doing their
job."
Seeing those trees being ripped from the earth, the short time I had
spent underneath them, - the effect it had on me, I can't even imagine
the feeling that the Palestinians had. I couldn't hold back my tears.
More photos from the destruction in Artas can be seen HERE:
http://flickr.com/photos/joeskillet/sets/72157600239235836/
Continuing to Resist
Later that day, at 1:30pm, the Palestinian Minister of Information Dr.
Mustafa Barghouti, held a press conference on the now-destroyed land.
Shortly after the media left, according to Mohammad Abu Swai, about 50
Israeli soldiers entered the site and started to brutalize the crowd.
Dr. Barghouti was hit with a soldier's club from behind.
Abu Swai explained, "The soldiers are acting like animals! They are
hiting anyone in their path, including the Minister!"
More on the Dr. Barghouti's attack HERE:
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2007/05/20/barghouti-attacked/
Palestinians from Artas were planning to replant the uproot trees,
plus an additional 30 trees that were just purchased. Soldiers,
however, refused to allow this to happen this day.
And just minutes ago, at about 5:00pm Palestine time, I received word
that Awad and two other Palestinians, who were present at the
demolition site and continuing to resist the ongoing demolition of
their land in Artas, were just arrested.
The charges are unknown as of this moment but what is clear is that
the policies of the Israeli government are determined to put an end to
anything standing in their way, even if it means jailing the non-
violent resisters attempting to halt their atrocities.
We are currently in contact with Gaby Lasky, an Israeli lawyer who
will take their case. We are asking anyone out there who can
contribute to the legal fees to do so by emailing:
Jonas at: joeskillet@riseup.net
And the demolition of Artas continues, and so does the non-
violent resistance.
Please raise your voices and scream! Think of the magic of noise
pollution. Silence is tragic!
Photos and Video editing by Jonas
***************
13) The Losers are Too Numerous to Name
by Anna Baltzer, 15 May 2007
report with photos here:
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2007/05/15/2-numerous-2-name/
Palestinian performers depict typical scenes of interrogation, abuse,
and torture of Palestinians in Israeli prisons and detention centers.
A few weeks ago I attended an event commemorating Palestinian
Prisoner's Day at Al Far'a Refugee Camp in the Tubas area. To enter
the theatrical and cultural spectacle we had to pass through a
makeshift checkpoint with soldiers pointing their guns in our faces
and screaming in Hebrew for us to get back. Although I knew these were
Palestinian actors role-playing the harassment they experience daily,
it was very frightening to have men with guns yell at me in a foreign
language and stick killing machines in my face. I realized immediately
that although I witness harassment at checkpoints constantly, as a
white Jewish American woman of extreme privilege I can never really
know what it feels like to go through one as a Palestinian. I
suspected the actors had been instructed to especially focus on
Western attendees to illustrate some of the abusive behavior we remain
so shielded from. It was very effective.
Inside the spectacle, hundreds of locals and visitors were watching
performers depict typical scenes of interrogation, abuse, and torture
of Palestinians in Israeli prisons and detention centers. Some of the
actors wore blindfolds, handcuffs, and chains and gave moving
monologues about the injustice of abuse and imprisonment without trial
in an occupier's land. Others played Israeli soldiers and guards.
After the play as a finale, young Palestinian boys danced Debka to
signify cultural pride and continuity in spite of monstrous hardships
and injustices.
The event took place in a former prison/torture center and afterwards
spectators toured the old holding rooms, haunted by past inmates and
painted over with graffiti and prisoner shadows.
There I met a mother holding a framed picture of her son, currently
held in Israeli jail along with more than 9,000 other Palestinians,
including many women and children. Near the old torture chambers was a
holding center converted into an art studio, where I met Morshid
Graib, an artist whose many stunning images depicted the suffering of
the Palestinian people. His paintings and the performances reminded me
once again of the extraordinary creativity of the Palestinians in
their nonviolent resistance to the Occupation.
The next day I was going on a tour of the Northern Jordan Valley,
about 10 km (6 miles) from Tubas the way a crow flies. By road it's
more like 22 km (13 miles), via Tayseer checkpoint, which only Israeli
settlers and Palestinian residents of the Jordan Valley are permitted
to cross. Tayseer excludes most Palestinians and internationals, so I
was forced to reach my destination the long way around, via Ramallah
in the center of the West Bank. It's hard to comprehend the absurdity
of such a detour without looking at a map. Rather than a 10 minute
ride, I traveled 6 hours southeast through 3 checkpoints the first
day, and then 4 hours back up through 2 checkpoints the next to reach
the other side of Tubas' eastern mountains. 10 hours instead of 10
minutes.
I was cranky from the long ride when I got to Ramallah, but a kind
shop-owner noticed my malaise and took me into his store for tea and
fresh bread. His name was Ali, and he spoke perfect English. An East
Jerusalemite, Ali lived in the United States for 19 years. He studied
civil engineering at Illinois Institute of Technology and was one of
the top engineers behind a new Chicago Metro Terminal. For 19 years,
Ali flew back to Israel every 3 months to renew his Jerusalem ID,
which wasn't automatically renewed-although he and his family were
born and raised in the city-because he is not Jewish. After Ali
acquired US citizenship, he continued returning every three months
until one day Israel revoked all Jerusalem IDs of Palestinians with
another citizenship. This was the first Ali had heard of such a law,
but suddenly his ID was confiscated and he was barred from ever
returning to the city where his home and family remain (of course, all
the American Jews who "make aliyah" and become Israelis never suffer
penalties for dual citizenship). An extremely successful and well-
educated engineer, Ali now works at a souvenir shop selling trinkets
in Ramallah. He cannot get normal work because he doesn't have a West
Bank ID either.
Meeting Ali was a good prelude to my tour through the Jordan Valley
where, like East Jerusalem, most Palestinians are not even allowed to
enter, and those who live there are constantly threatened by house
demolitions, ID-confiscation, and other actions that encourage or
require them to relocate. According to our tour guide Fathi from the
area, before 1967 there were 350,000 Palestinians living in the Jordan
Valley. Now there are 52,000-less than 15%.
Much of the Jordan Valley indigenous population's flight occurred
after violent expulsions in the first five years of the Occupation,
but the ethnic cleansing continues today as more and more Israeli Jews
move in and Palestinians move out. Israel no longer accepts
applications from Palestinians to move into the Jordan Valley, only
out of it. A similar one-way transfer is occurring out of the West
Bank: "since the outbreak of the second intifada, Israel 'has not
approved a single change of address from Gaza to the West Bank'" but
Palestinians have been forcedly transferred in the other direction.
Jordan Valley Palestinians who spend too long outside of the region
also lose their residence permits, just like Ali did. And as in East
Jerusalem, Israel's annexation is so advanced that many Israelis don't
even know the area is occupied. Israelis come to the valley on
vacation to enjoy the bountiful fruit orchards, the desert mountains,
and the Dead Sea. The modern highways are lined with palm trees and
nicely-groomed settlements, no Palestinians in sight.
At one point our tour bus stopped at a juice stand and we could just
barely hear Fathi's voice over the zoom of settler and vacationer cars
speeding by: "I am 40 years old and from the Jordan Valley, but I have
only seen the Jordan River twice in my life, on my way to and from
Jordan. They say it's about resistance, but Israel controlled this
area strictly with checkpoints decades before suicide bombs or the
intifadas began. As a Palestinian, I'm not allowed to go to the river,
or even to the Dead Sea-that precious natural wonder which scientists
now say will be gone in 12 years due to overuse... The valley is
reserved for Jews and tourists. But it's owned by Palestinians as far
west as Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and beyond."
Traditionally, Palestinian families used to live in the Jordan Valley
during the wintertime because of the mild climate and fertile land.
But now, of the 2400 square kilometers-30% of the West Bank-half is
controlled by Israeli settlements, and almost all the rest is split
between military closed areas, border closed areas, and environmental
"green" closed areas. The closed area strategy is familiar to anyone
who has studied urban development in East Jerusalem: Israel declares
large "closed" or "green areas," bulldozes all the Palestinian homes
and institutions within them, and after they've remained empty for a
few years the state begins to settle Jewish Israelis inside.
Some of these "closed areas" in the Jordan Valley are villages where
Palestinians have been living for generations. We visited Fasayel, a
Palestinian village that Israel has refused to recognize for forty
years since the Occupation began. Because Fasayel is unrecognized,
villagers aren't allowed to build or even repair their own homes. They
have no water infrastructure for the same reason. The village recently
got electricity but the electric poles are under demolition order
since they were built without a permit. In nearby Al Jiflik village,
Israel has refused permits to build a school, insisting that families
should either move or bus their children more than an hour each way to
Tubas town. In peaceful response, the teachers of Al Jiflik started
holding classes in a large village tent. Last year, Al Jiflik finally
constructed a real schoolhouse, which students will use until it is
demolished by Israel for being illegal.
About 4,500 Palestinians live in Fasayel and Al Jiflik combined. Just
1,800 more make up the total settler population in the Jordan Valley:
6,300 Israelis living in 36 settlements. The tiny population controls
the land of tens of thousands of Palestinians. Some settlements are
just a family or two, but have taken over huge expanses of Palestinian
farmland. Naama settlement replaced Ne'ama Palestinian refugee camp
and is home to 172 Israelis controlling more than 10,000 dunums. Of
the land-rich third of the West Bank, just 4% is left for the
remaining 52,000 Palestinian inhabitants. That includes the city of
Jericho and a few built-up Palestinian villages, but leaves next to 0%
for agricultural use. This has been devastating for the agriculture-
based society and explains the mass exodus of Palestinians even after
Israel's overtly violent expulsion tactics ceased. Having lost their
livelihoods, Jordan Valley farmers can either move west, or stay and
work as settlement laborers on their own land.
In Fasayel we met a young man named Zafar who works full-time packing
grapes into boxes at Beit Sayel settlement because his family has lost
all their land. Zafar said workers are paid between 30 and 50 NIS (US
$7.50 - $12.50) for an 8-hour workday, depending on their age: 50 for
adults, 30 for child laborers, sometimes 10 years old or younger. He
said there's no contract, no insurance, no holiday or sick pay, but
they work like slaves because it's the only alternative to leaving. We
asked Zafar if he supported the boycott of Israeli products even
though that could indirectly affect his job and he answered
unhesitatingly: "Yes. I hope everyone will boycott. I only work for
the settlement because I have nowhere else to work-they took all our
land."
Along our tour we met a farmer named Abu Hashem who used to be one of
the richest landowners in Palestine. Of his 8,000 original dunums,
only 70 are left after Israel built what Fathi calls, "the Forgotten
Wall." East of the major settler highway is a barrier similar in shape
and effect to Israel's better-known Apartheid Wall, this one built
back in 1971 and reinforced in 1999. From his modest house, Abu Hashem
can see past the Wall across the thousands of his dunums that he can
never return to, spanning all the way to the Jordan River.
Abu Hashem's sons alternate years going to university and working on
the farm to support the family. Abu Hashem would hire Palestinian
laborers so his sons could study full-time, but Israel prohibits
Palestinians from bringing in outside workers. Another farmer we met
said he needs 50 farmers to cultivate his land, but he only has 10,
since so many locals have left. Settlements, on the other hand, are
free to bring in as much cheap labor from the rest of the West Bank as
they like, so long as the Palestinians head back west when they're
done so as not to throw off the Judaizing demographic trend.
Much of the produce harvested by cheap Palestinian laborers in Israeli
settlements is then exported by the company Carmel-Agrexco, which is
50% owned by the Israeli state and brought in three-quarters of a
billion dollars last year alone. Anyone who claims that Israel is not
profiting off of the Occupation need only take a tour of the Jordan
Valley to see truck after truck of local goods being sent off to the
European market. Carmel-Agrexco boasts about getting produce from the
Jordan Valley (which they often refer to as "Israel) to the United
Kingdom in 24 hours, when it takes Palestinians three times as long
just to get it through checkpoints. Israel has consistently prevented
Palestinians from exporting their own produce, so it rots on its way
from one village to another, while Europeans enjoy fresh "Israeli"
citrus and avocados and the Israeli state's stocks rise.
As always, Palestinians have explored nonviolent resistance to the
monopolization of their land. We visited an agricultural cooperative
where local farmers have pooled their dwindling resources to try and
grow food to feed their communities so that they don't have to rely on
settlement products. Two representatives of the cooperative said that
Israel-which controls all water in the Jordan Valley, as in the rest
of the West Bank-only allows the farmers to use running water once a
week, not nearly enough to sustain their crops in the desert heat
(meanwhile, several settlements enjoy swimming pools to cool off from
the desert heat). In addition, when the farmers produce enough to sell
outside their communities, Carmel Agrexco and other Israeli companies
lower their prices until the Palestinians are run out of the market.
Then, secure in their monopoly, the companies raise their prices back
up.
Politicians and analysts have called Jordan Valley the second priority
after Jerusalem, but the most convincing reason is not border control.
Carmel Agrexco is just one of many companies making a killing off of
the Occupation, in the Jordan Valley and beyond. The electric, gas,
water, and other governmental and private monopolies have greatly
prospered since the Palestinian economy became a captive one in which
Palestinians either have to buy directly from Israel or pay taxes to
Israel for foreign goods. The latter isn't always an option anymore,
so millions go straight from Palestinians' pockets into Israel's.
Outside financial support for Palestinians eventually feeds into the
Israeli economy on top of the billions in aid Israel already receives
from the United States, enough to offset most of the Occupation's
costs. Coupled with tax collection, a captive cheap unprotected labor
source, and often unchecked industrial expansion using stolen land and
resources, the Israeli economy as a whole has been profiting off the
Occupation for many, many years.
Surprisingly-or perhaps not so surprisingly-it's difficult to find
this information all in one place, but a women's coalition in Israel
is working to do just that (Right now the best you can find are the
first few bulletins HERE. Meanwhile, people continue to shrug off the
near annexation of almost a third of the West Bank to "security,"
never stopping to question who the real winners and losers are. Is the
United States in Iraq for security? Or is it about big industries and
private contractors? As in America's war on Iraq, the driving force
behind Israel's policies in the Jordan Valley and all the Occupied
Territories is not security; it's power, control, and, money. The
winners include the Israeli state, private sectors, the economic
settlers and the ideological fundamentalists. The losers are too
numerous to name: They are the millions of Palestinians living under
brutal military occupation, each of whose stories is in some way as
tragic as those of Ali and Zafar. They are the Israelis who live in
fear, and who mourn the victims of Palestinian armed resistance. And
they are us, the American people, who continue to foot the bill for so
much of the carnage, many of us never knowing the difference.
Anna Baltzer is a volunteer with the International Women's Peace
Service in the West Bank and author of the book, Witness in Palestine:
Journal of a Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories. For
information about her writing, photography, DVD, and speaking tours,
visit her website HERE:
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2007/05/15/2-numerous-2-name/
***************
14) IWPS: Palestinian banker detained
by Beth, IWPS, 13 May 2007
report with photos here:
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2007/05/15/banker-detained/
When a young Ramallah bank employee returned home to Haris shortly
after midnight on May 13, 2007, he was confronted by soldiers who
suggested he was driving a stolen car and carrying stolen money. He
was kept on the road for an hour and a half, subjected to searches and
questioning, and finally allowed to leave after police had arrived and
conducted another inspection.
The young man was first confronted in front of his house by soldiers,
who demanded he back his car up to the entrance of the village a few
metres away. There, they made him lie down on the ground, which was
muddy from rain. They suggested that his car was stolen and searched
it fully, making the young man open the hood and trunk. The man had
purchased the car over two months earlier from someone in a
neighbouring village; his father said police from nearby Ari'el
settlement had been by the family home eight days earlier to check on
the car, and did not consider it to be stolen property.
Soldiers also searched the young man's bag and asked why he was
carrying so much money. The man explained that his job requires him to
travel throughout Salfit to collect money from bank customers wishing
to make deposits into their accounts, as there is no branch of this
bank in Salfit. The man must often visit customers late in the evening
after they have returned home from their jobs, often in settlements in
Salfit. He then makes the cash deposits the following day in Ramallah.
The young man was carrying his bank ID card with him when he was
stopped.
However, when IWPS arrived on the scene, a soldier was still
suggesting the money and car might be stolen, and said the young man
would be detained with his car near the village entrance until police
arrived. At one point there were nine soldiers and three jeeps at the
village entrance (compared to the young man, an older brother and
their parents, a friend who was interpreting for the family, and two
IWPS team members). One soldier positioned himself in a small field to
the side of the road, pointing his gun toward the houses in the
distance, prompting the young man's mother to remark that "we are not
afraid as they are, with their guns."
Police finally arrived shortly after 1:30 a.m. and after yet another
inspection of the car, allowed the young man to go home with his
family.
The village of Haris has also suffered in recent days from army
incursions and checkpoints, with so-called "flying" checkpoints having
been set up after dark, near the entrance to the village, on May 4, 5
and 6. The young banker and his family live on the main road of the
village just inside the entrance, and so are particularly affected by
such army actions.
IWPS withholds this information as a courtesy to those involved.
However, we will do our best to furnish you with all the relevant
information you may require. Photos by Beth
***************
15) Israeli police to human rights workers: "Don't do anything
stupid!"
Tel Rumeida Report
by ISM Hebron, 17 May 2007
A Palestinian got arrested and brought into the Israeli settlement of
Tel Rumeida between 7 and 8 o'clock this morning. Three human rights
workers (HRWs) started to film the incident and the Israeli border
police from a distance.
Israeli soldiers at the Tel Rumeida army post told the HRWs to leave
the street.
Two Israeli settlers, the local settler bus driver and Yifrad Al Kobi,
came down to where the HRWs were standing and blocked them from
filming and began to shoot photos of the HRWs. The driver claimed to
have orders from the army to tell the HRWs to move back.
The HRWs refused to move and after a while the police showed up. The
officer whose name is Avi Dubour was very upset and did not give the
HRWs any chance to explain themselves, their reasons for not moving
and so on.
The Israeli officer ordered the one who was filming to give him the
camera and when another HRW attempted to take the camera away to copy
the tape, the officer arrested both of the HRWs. The HRWs, along with
the Palestinian, were driven to Kiryat Arba Police Station and
detained there for between 3-4 hours. They were not told why they were
being arrested.
In the end, the HRWs were warned "not to do anything stupid and
released without an interrogation" and driven back to Tel Rumeida.
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
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International Solidarity Movement!
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work of the ISM. You may donate securely online at our website:
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http://www.palsolidarity.org
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