Palestine Solidarity Project » Apartheid Wall

1 Injured in Ma’asara’s Anti-Wall Demonstration

PSP — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 05:12:04 +0000

More than 100 mostly international solidarity activists convened in the streets of Al Ma’asara on Friday, July 23rd, to march against the construction of the Annexation Barrier in neighboring Um Salamuna. The group, made alive by drummers and a chorus of anti-occupation chants, made its way onto the main road toward the now inaccessible Palestinian land. Military jeeps immediately sped down to block the alternate route. Soldiers jumped out, detained a journalist and photographer, and forcefully pushed the nonviolent demonstrators off of the road. As the crowd stood on the side of the road, soldiers attempted to arrest an international and began throwing sound bombs and tear gas directly into the crowd. As the gas cleared and the demonstrators regrouped, the soldiers were seen leaving the area – a bizarre act after such excessive use of “crowd dispersal methods.” A French international was injured in the side of the head by shrapnel and sent to the hospital to have her wound stitched and checked for hearing loss.

Bethlehem District Peacefully Protests Annexation Barrier

PSP — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 21:12:53 +0000

Friday, June 18, 2010 – Today between 30 and 40 Palestinians, internationals and Israelis marched from inside of Wad Rahal to the outskirts of town where the Annexation Barrier is being built, cutting off expropriating agricultural land to the Efrat settlement which is currently expanding. The demonstrators peacefully walked along the road, carrying flags, chanting songs and banging on drums until they were prevented from going further by Israeli soldiers. Beit Sahour resident Mazin Qumseyer gave a speech in English to the soldiers stating that they were 12-15 km within the 1967 green line, and therefore were breaking international law under the Geneva convention. He also described how the expansion of the settlements was taking the local Palestinian land and explained that the local community simply wanted access to their land and to the trees they had planted and farmed.

The aims of the protest thus fulfilled, the demonstration concluded and the protesters returned to Wad Rahal.

The weekly action in Al-Ma’asara was today allowed to continue further along its route than is normally permitted. The demonstrators walked to the Al Ma’asara land on the edge of the town to which they usually cannot gain access. Once there the demonstrators – Palestinian, International and Israeli – sat on some rocks and talked about the success of their peaceful demonstration. Once the talk was over, everyone left.

1 Arrested in Bethlehem Area Anti-Barrier Demonstrations

PSP — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 18:45:06 +0000

Wad Rahhal
A peaceful demonstration took place in Wad Rahal this afternoon (Friday 11th June 2010). A group of around fifty activists both Palestinian & internationals marched with banners & flags from the community centre to the edge of the settlement, where they were met by the IDF whom prevented them from progressing further. Several participants made anti-occupation speeches in Arabic, Hebrew & English. The group chanted with good volume & was then told that they must disperse. The demonstration ended how it began, peacefully. There were no arrests or injuries.

Al-Ma’asara
Later Friday, a small group of activists from Al-Ma’asara marched towards their village lands. In a symbolic protest, one activist set fire to an Israeli flag. He then forcibly attacked and arrested by Israeli soldiers. The remaining demonstrators, Palestinians, Israelis, and Internationals, sat down in the road to protest his arrest, insisting they would not leave until he was released. The soldiers agreed to a release, providing the group would back up 15 meters. While the activists complied, the soldiers did not keep their word (surprisingly), and drove away with the organizer. Israeli soldiers also began pushing the group further back, and eventually dispersed the demonstration.

100+ March in Wad Rahhal

PSP — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 09:44:17 +0000

On June 4, well over 100 people participated in the third Friday demonstration against the wall in Wad Rahhal. They walked past the settlement of Efrat, along the planned Wall route until met by two Israeli military jeeps. (Later a third jeep pulled up.)

Boys stood in front of the march, facing the Israeli military, one with a sign in Hebrew reading No Wall. Many carried flags, including the Turkish flag, and spoke words of solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza and with the passengers of the humanitarian aid flotilla.

The marchers were nonviolent. A handful of settlers, including two children wearing bicycle helmets, stood on a hill above the road and watched the peaceful demonstration. No tear gas was used by the military. It likely would have affected the settler observers as well as the Palestinian, Israeli, and international demonstrators.

Also on Friday, a demonstration in Bil’in commemorating the loss of the solidarity activists aboard the Free Gaza flotilla was met with tear gas and arrests, including the arrest of Free Gaza organizer Huwaida Arraf, who had just been released after being siezed off the Freedom Flotilla day before. 2 others were arrested.

Demonstration Returns to Calm in Ma’asara

PSP — Mon, 31 May 2010 06:48:54 +0000

At the weekly nonviolent protest at Al Ma’asara against the continued expansion of the Annexation Barrier, Palestinian, Israeli, and international demonstrators were slowly pushed back by a line of Israeli soldiers with linked arms. Unlike the previous week, the Israeli military shot no tear gas or sound grenades to disperse the peaceful demonstrators, but snipers stood on the rooftops of Palestinian homes until the chanting and drumming had ended and the crowd had dispersed.

Work Day in Wadi Rahhal

PSP — Sun, 30 May 2010 09:00:30 +0000

On May 26, Palestine Solidarity Project volunteers joined local organizers in Wadi Rahhal to help a farmer do major trimming of some of his olive and fig trees. Ahmed Abdullah’s house was demolished a year ago . Fifteen of his twenty dunums of land have been confiscated for a settler road and for the expanding settlement of Efrat, well within the Palestinian side of the Green Line. The Apartheid Wall is going to make access to these trees as well as the graves of five family members. Groundwork for this portion of the Wall has already begun.

When asked how he supports himself now that he has lost so much land, Ahmed said he lived a simple life before. Now he lives even more simply.

An Israeli military jeep pulled up when we first arrived but immediately turned around and did not return.

6 Solidarity Activists Arrested in Beit Jala After Halting Bulldozer

PSP — Mon, 24 May 2010 17:14:53 +0000

The weekly protest against the encroaching apartheid wall took place this Sunday, 23 May, in Beit Jala. Once again Palestinians were prevented from reaching the site by Palestinian Authority police, leaving the field to assorted international activists and a sizeable contingent of Israeli supporters – and, of course, Israeli security contractors, border police, soldiers and plainclothes agents.

Despite having to clamber down a precipitous terraced hillside to reach the site, a group of committed activists managed to seat themselves in the path of the leading bulldozer. By clinging determinedly to one another they managed to resist being dragged away into detention for upwards of an hour. They hung on even when the operator of the bulldozer put their lives at risk when he resumed excavating within a metre of them.

The exasperation of the troops at failing to remove the demonstrators found its expression in detonating sound bombs and throwing teargas canisters amongst the assembled journalists and photographers. Nevertheless, the most determined of them managed to hang in and record the event until the last demonstrator had been arrested, handcuffed and carried to the waiting police vehicle.

The six activists- all Israeli nationals- who were arrested were released the same day. The final act of violence by the Israeli Occupation Force was to enter the village and teargas a group of Palestinian children who had taken no part in the demonstration.

2 Hospitalized, 2 Arrested in Al-Ma’asara

PSP — Sun, 23 May 2010 15:57:41 +0000

On Friday 21st June the village of Al Ma’sara, south of Bethlehem, held its weekly demonstration against the theft of village lands by the nearby Jewish colony/settlement of Efrat. Chanting “We want to go to our lands” in Arabic and English and bearing a banner proclaiming “Boycott Settlement Products” the villagers, numbering in excess of 150, marched towards the nearby access road. They were accompanied by a sizeable contingent of Israeli and international supporters, including a party of French visitors from Grenoble, who maintain an aid program to villagers in the Bethlehem region.

Upon reaching the road junction the protest march was met by a heavily armed contingent of Israeli Occupation Force soldiers and border police who immediately, and for no apparent reason, arrested two 16 year-old youths from the village . A day later they remain in detention. The marchers were then urged by the organisers to sit down in the road and maintain a non-violent and peaceful protest.

The commander of the Israeli troops then produced an order declaring the area a closed military zone. Almost immediately, and without warning, troops commenced to throw sound grenades amongst the assembled people, followed by successive volleys of tear gas cannisters which blanketed the area with dense clouds of choking, painful fumes. Two people were injured when hit by the cannisters. The most serious injury was sustained by Hassan Birjiyeh, a march organiser and member of the Al Ma’sara National Committee. He was taken to a hospital in Bethlehem with head and shoulder injuries which were later diagnosed as not life threatening.

Participants in the march were shocked by the level of violence and unprovoked aggression employed by the Israeli military. The French contingent (comprised mostly of middle-aged and elderly men and women) were particularly distressed to see and to experience such a disproportionate use of force. Even seasoned observers were surprised that tear gas had been used at Al Ma’asára, where protests are always peaceful and non-violent. They wonder whether this presages an increased level of repression by Israeli forces.

More than a Dozen Arrests in Anti-Occupation Demonstrations Over the Weekend

PSP — Sat, 15 May 2010 21:37:56 +0000

14 Israelis were arrested in the weekly demonstration in Sheikh Jarrah Friday as they attempted to march to the neighborhood and were prevented by police who used extreme force, leading to the hospitalization of 3 demonstrators just 2 days after hundreds of right-wing settlers were allowed to march through the neighborhood with a police escort. A number of the arrestees were held overnight in jail awaiting court hearings.

In An Nabi Saleh 50 Palestinian, international and Israeli demonstrators attempted to march to the land taken over by settlers from the nearby Halamish settlement. They were met with large amounts of tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and attack dogs. After being chased back into the village, 2 Israeli activists were detained and one was beaten in the military jeep before both were released without charge.

Demonstrations also occured in Ni’lin, Biddu, Bil’in and Wadi Rahal against the Annexation Barrier. In Wadi Rahal, in the southern Betlehem District, demonstrators gathered for the first time in over 3 years to protest the resumption of the construction of the Annexation Barrier, which will come within 30 meters of the village school.

Several Injured, Arrested in Weekend Demonstrations, Including 11 Year-Old Boy

PSP — Mon, 10 May 2010 14:54:57 +0000

In Al-Walaja Thursday, May 6, a small group of Palestinians, internationals and Israelis surprised the bulldozer operators destroying agricultural land for construction of the Annexation Barrier and managed to avoid Israeli forces and block the bulldozer’s progression for nearly half an hour before being violently pulled out of the way. 3 Palestinians were seriously injured, with 2 reported broken limbs.

In Ni’lin on Friday, May 7, residents, also joined by Israeli and international activists, marched towards the now-completed barrier that cuts through their agricultural land. The copious amount of tear gas shot as usual was less effective, mostly blowing harmlessly out of the area. The demonstration lasted for a few hours with no arrests or injuries.

In Nabi Saleh the demonstration Friday proceeded as usual and was winding down when soldiers and undercover intelligence officers invaded the village and began grabbing people. An 11 year-old boy, another Palestinian teen, and 2 Israeli activists were arrested and taken to the nearby settlement. Local women attempted to prevent the soldiers from taking the young boy, but were threatened and attacked. He was released later in the evening, and reported being beaten by the military at the police station. The Israeli activists, were also released, as were 4 Israelis and 1 international who were arrested on the road to Nabi Saleh, all without charge.

Several were also reportedly arrested in Bil’in, a lively demonstration against Palestinian expulsion from Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem was also held on Friday, and demonstrators in Al Ma’asara reportedly reached their agricultural land during the demonstration, a rare accomplishment in this village which has been demonstrating against the construction of the Annexation Barrier since 2007.
The weekly demonstration in Beit Ommar was canceled for a community event.